Wings of Recursion
by FaerieKnight197
Summary: The former guardian of time had screwed up. Now her successor must fix the problems she created. But the only way to do that is to initiate a recursive loop. Let the Time Loops begin, Faerie Knight style. This will primarily be a Ranma/Sailor Moon cross.
1. Chapter 1

"speech (English mainly)"

"_radio, feline language, or telepathic speech"_

_thoughts_

/"different language or panda sign"/

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be some OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

Wings of Recursion

It started about supper time, the end of the world that is. His name was Eric Von Mason, a minor fact that the man hadn't known for a few years. In his life he had already been many things. He'd been a highly trained infiltration expert for the CIA of his home dimension. He'd been a costume crime fighter. For a while he'd become a wandering hero, a knight errant of a futuristic time and place. It was during this last that he met his wife.

Her name at the time had been Susan Wellington, and she too had been from a different dimension then that where they met. The two of them in many ways were nothing alike. While Eric was of average height for an American, Susan was freakishly tall at seven foot eight inches. Where he was rather ugly, she was good looking. Not beautiful, but definitely easy on the eyes. While he favored hand to hand, she preferred guns. When he favored subtlety, she was direct and confrontational.

The one thing they had in common was a passion for protecting those incapable of protecting them self. For Eric it had been drilled into him during the course of years of martial arts study. The Art was for defense, defense of yourself and defense of others. It was not used to harm the innocent. It was a means of obtaining enlightenment, not a path to power. It was a lesson Eric had learned well in his studies. And one he took to heart.

Susan on the other hand had no formal training in the Art. She'd gone through some basic self defense, and had built upon that herself. While Eric didn't know the details, he'd gathered his wife dedicated herself to fighting the supernatural because something happened to her mother. Something so bad Susan refused to talk about it. But with her limited skills the young woman threw herself into harms way time and again.

It was this selfless dedication to defending humanity that caused Eric to fall in love. Theirs was not a relationship shown in the movies. It wasn't the next great romance. Theirs was a love forged on the battle field. And it was there that it was most evident. So when they'd heard of a demonic invasion up in Calgary, the two of them immediately traveled north to lend a hand. Both had known they might not come back this time. But it was a risk worth taking.

When they got there, it had been the middle of a war in miniature. In the chaos it was a miracle they hadn't been separated. Somehow, even Eric wasn't sure how, they found themselves the vanguard of a push to shut down a demonic gate. He'd long since abandoned the fluid grace of his preferred style for brutal efficiency of a more basic martial art. As his hover cycle had roared across the battlefield his sword flashed back and forth.

Susan hadn't been idle either. Sitting behind him, she provided cover fire with her unusual pistol and shotgun. _I wonder how the battle went?_ Eric mused briefly. They hadn't been there for the end. A balrog had managed to smash a tree into his hover cycle, sending them careening into the portal just as several mages were sealing it. And that alone had been the biggest event leading to the current situation. As well as why the world was ending.

They had not been sent to hades like the demon had probably wanted. Instead Eric and his wife had found themselves in an endless misty expanse. Other then the mist the only feature they had initially found was a single freestanding arched door and a couch. It was in that endless expanse that Eric Von Mason's life took a strange turn. The spirit of a long dead faerie had asked him to take up the mantle of Guardian of Time.

From the moment he accepted the position Mason had realized there was a problem. Unless something was done, time it's self would start breaking down within a century. Maybe less, he wasn't entirely sure. And the only way he could find to stop that from happening was almost as bad. According to the time gate, it was something that had never happened before in this dimension. For the only way to save reality was to initiate a recursive loop set to trigger before the breakdown began.

At most a recursive loop would be a stop gap. It didn't solve the underlying problem. In fact it would likely create new problems. Yet it was the only choice. Then Eric stumbled across an option. One that gave a slim ray of hope. If he could find seven people to serve as anchors during each loop time might have a chance at being repaired. But who? It had to be seven individuals who together represented every aspect of creation. One for each element, one to represent time it's self, one for order, and one for chaos.

Learning about both Ranma Saotome and the Sailor Senshi had been a stroke of luck. They weren't entirely a perfect fit, but close enough to work. It would mean the repair would take longer though. The fact the world was beginning to unravel meant one of them had died. _It's too early!_ Eric thought as he grabbed his wife and transported them both to the time gate. It was going to be a long watch, he could tell already.

Wings of Retribution

There are some facts almost no one can tell you about. They can't describe it, because they didn't survive the experience. Case in point, Ranma Nightbane could tell you in intimate detail how much it hurts to have a holy sword thrust into your chest. She could describe every second of pure agony as the divine flames consume your demonic body. It's not a pleasant experience. Nor is it one demons can survive. As such a demon describing the experience is highly unlikely to happen.

It was a surprise when she found herself waking up on the dining room floor of the Tendo residence. Where she awoke was part of the shock. It wasn't the entirety of the shock however. No, that honor went to the fact that Ranma Nightbane was waking up. _I was killed, what's going on? Ugh, my head... What hit me?_ Spotting the cracked table gave a clue what hit her. Why and when was still unanswered however.

"He wants Akane," Came a voice that sounded suspiciously like Kasumi.

"I hate boys!" That was Akane, most likely.

"Well then he's perfect. Ranma's half girl." That sounded a lot like Nabiki, which was odd.

"What's going on?" There was Nabiki's voice again, this time coming from the dojo.

_Wait, what?_ Ranma sat up and looked around. Sure enough the Tendos were gathered around the ruined table. And there was Nabiki Tendo also emerging from the dojo. _I must be hurt more then I thought. I'd swear I'm seeing double._ She gauged the reactions of everyone else. Since they were expressing various states of shock there really had to be two of the middle tendo. The one by the dojo had a familiar link.

"Okay Nabs, mind explaining what's going on? Last thing I remember was Mousse killing me in a quite painful manner. And now my head hurts, probably because someone apparently smashed a table into it. And I'm suddenly engaged to your psychopath of a sister. Not to mention, why are there two of you?"

Everyone stared at Ranma like she'd grown a second head. Nabiki, her Nabiki anyway shrugged. "Sure thing hot stuff, I'm just as confused as you. I was talking to my sister, then everything unraveled and here we are. Do I have permission to check the files?"

"Go for it Nabs," Ranma said casually. Her stomach rumbled loud enough to be heard from across the room. "I'm really hungry, so while you're doing that I'm going to take my apparent fiance upstairs for a snack."

Ranma started to pull off the red Chinese silk shirt that was being worn. _When did that get put on?_ Movement alerted her to the table being lifted by Akane and swung towards her head. The demoness rolled backwards to avoid the clumsy strike and came to her feet. The shirt had been casually discarded on the floor. That others were in the room didn't bother her too much. Maybe once it would have, but that was before merging two different personalities and spirits.

"PERVERT!" Akane screamed as she smashed the table into the floor, breaking it in two.

"No, I'm a sex demon. Don't worry, I'll be gentle. If you want, I could even show you how good the first time with a man really can be." In a casual display of power Ranma incinerated the broken table. "Try that again though, and I'll have to punish you. I'll still feed, but you _wont_ enjoy it much."

An hour later Akane came back downstairs stiff and with a nuclear blush that refused to fade.

_**XxXxX**_

"Ranma! Prepare to die!"

The cry echoed through the school yard. The boy in question grabbed Akane and jumped backward, just before a red bamboo umbrella cratered the sidewalk. He continued to casually dodge strikes of brutal power. When the umbrella was thrown like a cloth and wood saw blade the pig tailed martial artist casually caught it. The umbrella's sheer momentum caused him to spin around a couple times before it bled away. He examined the umbrella curiously.

"Excuse me, but do I know you? And why did you just try killing me?" Ranma asked honestly.

"Because of you I've seen hell!" The yellow and black bandana clad boy exclaimed.

With a smile of genuine joy Ranma tossed the umbrella back. "Really? I'd think I'd remember that. What restaurant is your favorite? Mine's Di Vinci's, they serve the best pasta in hell or earth. And their cooks make a pretty mean chicken salad too. Liu Bei's Fine Dining is pretty good too."

Ranma dodged several more attempts to skewer him with the rainy weather implement. Even as he continuously avoided the lethal assault the demonic boy called forth a translucent keyboard in midair. _I'm glad I finally got Nabs to show me how to use this thing, _he thought while accessing the mainframe. Without a name however the search was proving less then helpful. _Maybe if I narrow it down to living mortals who visited hell? Huh, that's a pretty long list. And I notice they're all from the Hibiki_ _line._

"Sure you don't want to share your name? I'm pretty sure I never met you before. Come on, not even a little more hint then 'I've seen hell'? I'm guessing you are a Hibiki, but that doesn't narrow it down much. Everyone in that family seems to visit Nephilheim at least once in their life, sometimes hundreds of times. And I'm currently seeing fifty living Hibiki at the moment in the files. Six are staying at the Infernal for a few days right now. Then there's the half dozen here in Japan, wait make that two dozen. Damn, you Hibiki travel fast. How does one get from Iceland to Japan in ten seconds anyway?"

By this point the unknown boy had grown tired of the game. He jumped back and pulled eight bandanas off his head. Surprisingly he was still wearing one. The triangles of cloth became rigid, then he threw them in an arcing spread. Without really paying attention to the surroundings, Ranma ducked beneath the projectiles. A series of meaty impact sounds caused him to pause and look back.

There five students of Furiken High were laying on the ground, yellow with black pokadot bandanas protruding from the chest, leg, arm, or in one boy's case the forehead. Eyes narrowed dangerously as Ranma's wings were brought out. If there was one thing he really frowned upon, it was pointless murder. It was the second fastest way to piss Nightbane off. The fastest way was betrayal.

"Let me guess, whoever you are, you're now going to try blaming me for you killing innocents. You'll then use that to justify continued attempts on my life for no reason. I'm then guessing you'll use increasingly indiscriminate attacks until you destroy the city, blaming me the entire time for it?"

The aggressor blanched as fire formed in his hated foe's hands. With a new found hesitance he asked "Because of you I've seen hell?"

"No boy," Ranma snarled. "Because of your family's curse you've seen hell, probably multiple times. Because of me you're going to actually live there now, murderer."

Akane peaked out from behind a tree, extremely glad she'd decided not to try proving her martial arts skill. _Who'd have thought a bandana could do that?_ She winced as tormented screams echoed across the school yard. The cracking of bone and tearing of flesh alone made her want to flee. And yet that same primal fear held Akane Tendo immobile. Above her Nabiki Tendo sat by a window watching.

"Note to self: do not anger the demon. Make absolutely sure he knows about and approves any pictures taken or sales made. Also, share all profits with him." The mercenary Tendo muttered. "Good thing that other me left. A three way split would be really bad."

Wings of Whimsy

There's something to be said about doing the same events multiple times. Namely that they get boring. After awhile there is no more surprise in them. No real reason to keep doing the same thing. If you already know where and when an attack will occur, it's easy to skip strait to the beat-down before anyone even gets hurt. In fact, knowing exactly who holds the rainbow crystals within them tends to make getting the silver imperium crystal a very simple task. It was actually defeating Queen Beryl that kept proving problematic. While the senshi knew where the dark kingdom was based, so far no assault had actually worked.

The first few times Sailor Moon was content to let the dark kingdom move first. After all, it's not like they would actually get the prize. They never did. But as the fights became old hat she wondered if there is a better way. A way to shortcut everything and find more fun things to do. She'd already tested out of Crossroads Junior High, for the fiftieth time. Being a eighteen year old forced into the body of a fourteen year old was not fun. At least not anymore.

"Do you think we should get the stuff right away this time?" She asked her friends.

They were eating ice cream at the Crown Arcade, still one of Usagi's favorite places. The games had become boring and easy, but the company and food was more then worth it. _It's great everyone's here. Guess Mina-chan finished in London early this time._ The teenage leader was all smiles as she took in her friends. There was Makoto, she'd decided to transfer to Crossroads early too. Meeting her had been a joy.

Then there was Ami, still burying her nose deep in books. _I thought she read the entire library eight times already? _Rei was sitting across from Usagi, rereading one of her favorite manga again. And over there was Setsuna. A long time friend as well. It still seemed odd that Setsuna was the only one not named after an inner planet Even Luna couldn't explain it. Not that the moon cat ever could explain anything.

"Say Usagi, why do we need to keep collecting it? Don't you still have one?" Ami asked from around her geology guidebook.

"Uh, kinda. I started a collection. Besides I thought we had to keep them out of her hands?"

Ami put down her book in surprise. "Just what do you do with them all then?"

Usagi looked sheepish and touched her index fingers together. "Uhm... I'm making a statue out of them. Three more and it'll be complete."

Rei was having trouble digesting this information. So instead she focused on something else. "When do the attacks start?"

Ami pulled out the mercury computer and checked a file. "In three weeks. If we hurry, we could get the crystal and finish everything ahead of schedule this time."

Usagi smiled at the idea. Then another great one occurred to her. "I know, remember that woman we met before? You know, the one also in our line of work? Why don't we give her the dates and locations of the attacks. That way we get some time off."

Further discussion ended as the second round of sundaes were delivered.

_**XxXxX**_

The plan was flawless. There were no lunar guardians to stumble across the energy gathering operation. His yoma had infiltrated the shop in the dead of the night. The entire stock should have been replaced and put on sale already. The energy should have been flowing, ready for his dark queen to empower Metallia. And yet the perfect plan had gone wrong somehow. There was the sale, just as expected. Crowds of eager shoppers, just as expected.

And yet there was no energy being gathered. It made no sense at all. This nation had been targeted for main operations due to it's lack of defenders. So what could have happened to his servant? When someone tapped him on the shoulder Jeddite scowled. No one should have been on the roof he stood upon besides him. He slowly turned around. There stood a woman wearing a brown trench coat. In one hand she held a clear plastic bag filled with grayish black dust. In the other was a sawed off shotgun. The handle of a sword could be seen protruding from her back.

"Excuse me, but is this demon yours?" The woman asked. "I've been looking for it's owner all day."

_**XxXxX**_

_There's no way she can know about this one!_ Jeddite thought confidently. At every stage that duster wearing woman had shown up, asking if he was the owner of yet another bag of yoma dust. It was getting rather frustrating. But not this time. She couldn't possibly guess this theme park was a energy gathering plan. After all, it was far too pink and girly to attract _her_ attention. So this plan at least was safe. Which would help get him back into Beryl's good graces.

"I don't believe it," he deadpanned.

The theme park wasn't even open yet, and that woman was emerging from the castle. Once again she was carrying a bag filled with dust. It was obvious the woman had spotted him because she waved. _How does she do it? She even stopped the bus plan before it could even start. It makes no sense! It's almost like she knows my plans before I do!_ He was still fuming when his queen called him for a report.

_**XxXxX**_

"Now that has to hurt," Sailor Moon commented from her perch.

She and the rest of the senshi were sitting on the airport's roof watching the fight. It had started with fifty police officers trying to swarm the woman. That had not worked very well. Instead they had been dispatched back into the sand they originated as by an actual fireball launched from a shotgun. Next the aircraft had tried running her over. This too hadn't worked nearly as well as intended.

Rather then being smashed, the woman had jumped onto a wing and plane surfing. It was at this point Jeddite had tried going toe to toe with her. Rather then fire a gun or draw her sword, the woman merely punched him in the face. And what a punch it was! He flew backwards nearly fifteen feet before skidding to a stop. The impact had probably shattered his nose considering he appeared to be bleeding a lot.

"Need any help?" Sailor Moon called down to the woman.

"No, I'm good! Thanks for asking though!" Came the reply.

Sailor Pluto turned to her nominal leader and frowned. "I don't suppose we'll actually defeat Beryl this time, will we? I'm getting tired of middle school."

**Author Notes:**

Okay, the overall tale is called 'Wings of recursion'. However each vignette will have it's own title. Wings of Retribution for example is the very first loop after Wings of Paradise ends. Wings of Whimsy is several loops later. While I may go back sometime and turn one of these into a full blown story, they are not intended to be complete tales.

Thanks to tuatara for catching some bone headed spelling errors from writing at 3am. They have since been fixed.


	2. Chapter 2

"speech (English mainly)"

"_radio, feline language, or telepathic speech"_

_thoughts_

/"different language or panda sign"/

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½ or any other anime or manga that may crop up. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun. Paragon City is borrowed from NCsoft, and is from the superhero MMO City of Heroes. Miss Meow is one of my characters in that game. Not sure if there actually is a supergroup called Catgirls United, but there may be. Sorry to it's members if there is.

**Warning:** There will be some OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

Wings of Crystal

This was it, the final showdown. Six teenage girls stared across the frozen wastes. Each knew that the odds of winning were low. To date they had yet to actually reach the throne room, much less defeat Queen Beryl. But this time they had a plan. It was a good one too. This time they would survive the day! Or not, whichever the case might be. And yet they were all getting tired of dying over and over.

The problem was not the distance. That alone could have been navigated easily enough. No, it was the army of yoma between the girls and the throne room. _Maybe attacking as soon as we had the crystal wasn't a good idea_, Sailor Mercury thought drily. From the mirroring expressions it was clear the others were starting to share her thoughts. It had seemed like such a good idea originally. Shortcut strait to the end and remove the problem right away.

"Hey everyone, I have an idea!" Sailor Moon exclaimed.

She reached into her personal 'stuff space' and withdrew a life sized statue of herself. It was composed of hundreds of spherical crystals, at least. How she'd gotten the detail work to be so precise was anybody's guess. Neither was it obvious how the multitude of silver imperium crystals were able to stick together like that. It was only with intense study that one could even tell it was composed of a plethora of orbs. Even then it was more the impression of roundness then actual shape.

Sailor Pluto blanched upon seeing the monstrosity of Moon Kingdom magic. "Is that thing safe?"

"I got a bad feeling," Sailor Jupiter muttered.

"Well, when in Rome do as the Gnomes do," Sailor Venus cheerfully pronounced.

"I finally get to try this out!" squealed Sailor Moon.

The resulting blast of raw magic was enough to push the Earth out of it's orbit and into that of it's neighboring planet Venus. As the heavens rapidly shifted Sailor Moon could be heard muttering "oops".

Wings of the Cards

Leaving the dojo had been a great decision. Or at least a needed one. There was no way Ranma Nightbane intended to spend the next six months listening to the moronic duo. She assumed it would be six months mostly because that was how long these had been usually lasting. Sometimes it was more, sometimes less. The last one had only been a week. The final days had been... different. The media had been in a giant uproar over the fact the earth somehow had been propelled out of it's orbit.

"Stupid airhead should think before using an untested artifact like that."

Still, it did create new problems. For one thing she was now homeless, and in new city. Another was that some idiot with a deck of cards had just challenged her to a high stakes game. The problem being that she had no idea how to actually play this game. But from the sounds of it Ranma knew she had better learn, and fast. The stakes were for nothing more and nothing less then her soul.

So here Nightbane was, standing in a game shop. It was a place she'd never been before. And it was highly confusing. _Now which game was it the kuno wanabe challenged me to? And why does everyone keep calling me Mai? _Since she wasn't actually told which card game the duel was to be done with, Nightbane picked one seemingly at random. With a small ruby she paid for a box of starter decks and five booster boxes. _This should be enough, I hope_

Three days later found Ranma and some teenager calling himself Marick standing across from each other. "As pregame cards I play the weapons of choice Shield and Parrying Blade. I also play the persona card Ceirdwyn"

Her opponent laughed. "You fool, you brought the wrong deck and forfeit automatically. I win."

Ranma frowned at this. "Except you never stated which game. Thus it is up to the person being challenged to pick the weapon, or in this case game. Thus whichever game I brought a deck for would be the correct game. I was a little concerned at first since you failed to specify a format. So I looked up what the rules for such a challenge are. So, do you have a highlander deck or do you concede?"

"Say what?" Marick shouted in alarm.

"Let me guess, you trusted that I would be ignorant of the rules and thus believe you won when you didn't?" The smile given was not an amused one.

"But a shadow game can only recognize duel monsters!"

Hearing this, Ranma blinked. "You mean according to this 'shadow game thing' we both forfeit? So what happens now?"

Marick stared in shock, unsure himself since this had never happened before.

Wings and Virtue

"What do you mean we can't be the sailor senshi?" Asked an irate Sailor Moon.

"Just that," said a woman sitting behind the city hall super group registration desk. "Before you can register a super group the founder has to least hold a security level ten clearance. A security level which I note you don't have 'Sailor Moon'. I also note that none of you have registered yet. I'll have to ask you to go to the meta-human law enforcement registration department. Next please!"

A woman of above average height approached the desk after the six 'sailor senshi' were lead away. The woman had shoulder length blond hair and wore a brown duster. Beneath that was what appeared to be some sort of body armor covered in wires. The woman had a pistol of unusual design and a sawed off shotgun holstered at her hips. Other then the armor and weapons one would easily have mistaken her for a civilian.

"Hello Miss, I'm new in town. Can you direct me to where paranormal threat eliminators have to register? As I understand it I have to have a license in this recursion to practice my trade secondary."

The city hall employee frowned at the wording. "That depends, do you use magic, technology, natural skill, a genetic mutation, or scientifically bestowed abilities?"

The tall woman thought for a moment before answering. "I'm not sure really. As I understand it my mother was an avatar for a goddess. However I use weapons and devices I built by hand. An old friend of mine once said my equipment reminds him of technowizardry in that it is powered by my innate psionic abilities though."

"It sounds like you want the M.A.G.I. Department. That's down that hall, first door on the right. Is there anything else you need?"

The armed woman smiled warmly. "Actually yes, my husband and I want to reserve the super group name of 'Mason Exterminators' for when we qualify for our level ten security clearance."

Once the proper paperwork was filled out the woman headed for the M.A.G.I. Offices. There she bumped into the six teenagers from before. _I wonder if they know shouting wont help? Probably not, after all they don't quite realize yet something's wrong. _While she didn't see a line, there was a sizable crowd of gaudily clad men and women surrounding one spot. Occasionally someone would run off at high speed. All around the rest of the room were various urns and crystals with the occasional stone tablet.

When Sailor Pluto finally noticed the newcomer to the crowd she turned and approached the woman. "Excuse me, but just who are you?"

"My name," the blond said, "is Susan Wellingon-Mason. How have you girls been doing? I haven't seen you since that time at the airport with the demon summoning madman. What was it, eight cycles ago?"

Sailor Jupiter noticed the new arrival and approached. "I still don't see why all this was needed."

"I'll explain later, but for now I think it's your turn. The crowd has left."

_**XxXxX**_

He awoke with a massive headache, again. It was an event that was becoming quite annoying. A quick glance showed he was once again back in the Tendo dining room. And that meant only one thing, that something had happened yet another reset. _Probably those girls, again. One of these times I really have to restart their training. Although they did last longer this time. Wait, why are they speaking english? I don't get it._

As the youth stood something crashed through the wall. That something proved to be feline, and humanoid. It was also wearing the tattered remains of some sort of colorful outfit, and female. Upon seeing the cat-girl Ranma shuddered. Nearby a yowling could be heard. He looked over and saw that Akane had dropped to all four limbs and was hissing at the unconscious intruder.

"Okaaaay, so she's still affected by the neko-ken? I didn't see that coming. It figures, with a temper like hers of course she can't resist fear very well either."

"Oh my," came a voice from the kitchen. "Someone should move Miss Meow before Akane shreds her, again."

Feeling completely out of place, Ranma sighed. "And who is 'miss meow'?"

Briefly the middle sister debated selling the information. But the fact it was readily available almost every other block put a damper in that idea. That and the eight restraining orders, twelve civil suits, and the fact she was currently on probation after charges of blackmail and extortion. Sometimes it seemed like every third person in this city was either a would be super villain or a super hero, even in high school.

"Just a member of the super group Catgirls United. She's a local hero, not a very good one at that. One of the trolls tosses her through the wall about once a week. Which always sets off sis If she's home."

Ranma Nightbane, frequently known as Saotome sighed again. "And this place is still standing because?"

"Very good construction companies," Nabiki Tendo deadpanned.

From outside the sounds of gunfire, melee combat, and the occasional detonation of a fireball sounded. When he looked out the hole a scene strait out of a manga appeared before his eyes. Several men and women in gaudy and/or silly costumes were doing battle with large green skinned men with horns. A human shaped blur ran past, and a couple women in skimpy outfits were flying through the air towards unknown destinations.

_**XxXxX**_

_Three months later_

A phone rang, and a blond haired woman picked it up. "Mason Exterminators, paranormal threats a specialty. I'm Susan Mason, how may I help you? Job for MAGI huh? What can you tell me about this demon, any known allegiance? It works alone you say? That's unusual, usually they are summoned by the Circle or any number of criminals from the Isles. My husband is currently out on another job, but I should be able to handle this myself. Sixteen you say? All right, I'll be careful."

The woman was tall, nearly eight feet tall in fact. Her frame was a little broad with well defined muscles. But not so defined that they looked out of place or hampered movement much. Her complexion was fairly plain. While she looked nice, no one would claim her to be a model. For those who knew what she did, it amazed them she had no scars. For what Susan Mason did was hunt supernatural evil.

She was a rare breed of specialist, one who knew a lot about the paranormal and had the tools to slay anything from ghosts to gods should the need arise. While a registered and licensed 'hero' of Paragon City, she didn't easily fit into the standard classifications. Her strength was superhuman, as was her durability. When combined with armor she could empower with an impenetrable force field initially the people who interviewed her had assumed a 'tanker' with superhuman strength and invulnerability.

Susan also carried a bastard sword and could regenerate nearly any injury within minutes. This had created speculation she was a broad sword and regeneration scrapper. The fact she also carried a sawed off shotgun that fired fireballs and a pistol which fired either energy or telekinetic force made the agency assume her to be a blaster of some sort. Even which branch of the agency had been up for debate. Susan was a demigod, thus clearly fell under M.A.G.I., and yet her tools were technological in nature thus she might have belonged with the technology branch.

Her husband had been equally hard to place. It had been initially decided he was a 'claws and super reflexes' scrapper due to his agility and the bionic claws he possessed. Yet he also demonstrated a high level of proficiency with martial arts, in styles the city had never seen before. His chi manipulation skills allowed him to heal himself and others while also preforming a sort of ranged attack, so it had also been debated if he should be classified as a 'defender'.

Even which department he belonged with had been iffy. He had the ability to fly due to a scientific experiment, yet had clearly technological modifications too such as a cybernetic computer in his chest and bionic claws. Then there was his magic sword. That alone gave him abilities which it was speculated should put him with MAGI, the department that dealt with magic and the supernatural.

Even what security level to assign them had been iffy. Normally one's security level depended on both level of power. The higher one's security level the more effective in combat, and the more difficult assignments that could be given. Normally neophyte heroes would grow in experience, learning how to better utilize their abilities. How to cause more damage with their weapon, or growing in strength and durability.

But not these two. Or at least, not in the way Paragon was use to. Susan's weapons were almost ineffective against non-supernatural foes. And her favorite one, the pistol or 'ghost gun' as she called it always was the same effectiveness. Her strength didn't increase, nor did her regeneration speed up. Sure she grew more durable, but that was mostly because she could withstand more injuries before being incapacitated.

Her husband was almost the same way. He had already nearly reached the peak of what his physical skills would ever reach. Not to mention they had already tackled things that caused many of the more experienced heroes of this city to blanch. Susan and her husband were veteran warriors from other dimensions, not neophyte heroes who barely knew which end of a weapon to hold.

So when a call came about a demonic incursion or extra-dimensional invasion they both knew it was serious. Time and again over the last few months both of the Masons had proven to be a force to be reckoned with, both separately and together. It helped that the demon forces they encountered the most were far weaker then any fought in the past. That she was being called in because of a lone demon said something about the threat level to be expected. Especially since by all reports this one had already defeated sixteen of the city's champions.

The first eight had tried attacking individually. The other eight had gone in together. That meant this was not a typical demon. It worked alone, but wasn't from the Isles apparently. If it had been she would have more information. _First order of business is to learn exactly what I'm dealing with. For that I shouldn't need my full arsenal. Normal concealed armor and my ghost gun should be enough. Now for the address, six-fifteen Justice Avenue huh? That's over in Skyway. Fairly deep in troll territory too. Time to track down the ones already defeated. I have questions, and they have answers._

After leaving a message she headed for the nearest train station. It was only eight blocks away, so the jog didn't take very long. Susan showed the attendant her boarding pass and got on the first bus heading south. The compartment she rode in held two dozen other costumed crime fighters. A trend she didn't really understand. All she'd ever felt was needed was armor, holster and sheath harness, and a trench coat. Maybe a fedora as well, but that wasn't required.

_**XxXxX**_

For the eighth time the woman approached the building. She had brown shoulder length hair that was poorly maintained. The woman's chest and arms were covered with a yellow and black leather jerken that went just past her elbows. While the main color was a dingy yellow black stripes went down both arms. The front and back also had a contoured stripe of black. Black chitin like shoulder guards adorned both shoulders She wore black fingerless gloves on each hand

Her legs were partly encased in organic appearing spires of black metal. What type of metal, she had no idea. On her feet she wore purplish green ribbed combat boots The back of the boots had a set of three fin like spines each. The lower half of her face was obscured by a black veil with gold dots on it. She was known as Madam Enigma, a mysterious hunter of humans. Madam Enigma was known as a hero, but just barely.

Two weeks ago she'd heard a group of neophyte blasters had gone missing. That had started an investigation. Fifty members of the Troll gang had been hospitalized after she interrogated them. Fifty more hadn't survived the process. However it hadn't been as informative as Enigma had hoped. All it turned up was a kid going by 'miss meow' had been defeated multiple times by some sort of clawed monster.

It had been enough to send the homicidal warrior into this neighborhood. And when Miss Meow once more went flying through the wall of one house in particular Madam Enigma had finally seen her prey. Said prey was a teenage girl of Asian decent and potentially lethal energy claws. When the 'heroine' moved to put down the feral she'd been confronted by a red haired teenage girl with bat wings and fire projection abilities.

It had been the first encounter with the demoness calling herself 'Nightbane'. The first, but not the last time. Defeat was no stranger. However in the past Madam Enigma had always managed to come back and win the second time. Or sometimes the third time if her foe got exceptionally lucky. But this demon had so far constantly out fought her. It was always close. The last battle had lasted nearly two hours. Longer then Enigma had ever had to fight a single foe before.

During the final approach she noticed a tall woman nearby also studying the house. Hyper senses informed the killer her prey was in the attached dojo, again. It was almost always where she found the demon. At speeds which almost boardered on superhuman Madam Enigma burst through the wooden door. Her organic metal claws burst from her hands, ready to shred this inhuman monster.

_**XxXxX**_

"All right girls, time for a break."

Ranma was currently male while he trained former students. Almost three months ago they had been found beaten nearly to death just outside the Tendo home. It was after that he restarted their training. This time however he didn't hold back quite as much as before. Since they insisted on trying to be super heroes for some unknown reason, Ranma decided to make sure they would survive the experience. And who knew, maybe they would stop getting themselves (and occasionally the world) killed over and over.

Seconds after the girls had left to get cleaned up the dojo's street entrance shattered inward. In the ruined door stood a figure he was growing to despise. She was almost as bad as that Hibiki person about unjustified assaults. _Nabs better not charge me for this._ Ranma stood there and waited for the inevitable attack. When it didn't come he blinked slowly. This was the first time the madwoman had not tried killing him immediately.

"Well," he began, "are you going to try killing me again, or just stand there? Better make up your mind quickly. An old friend is heading our way and I want to talk with her."

The woman, he thought she called herself 'madam mystery' or something like that, seemed confused. A reaction which puzzled the pig tailed warrior. Then it hit him, this woman had never attacked when he was male before. It had always been while he was a female. _Bet she doesn't even know who I am._ The feral growl coming from the costumed woman was a bit alarming. It almost sounded like Akane when she went neko. Or when he use to do so.

From behind Madam Enigma came a woman's voice. "So Mister Nightbane, I take it you are the demon that's been taking out heroes for the last month or two?""

"Hello Mason-San," Ranma said with a smile. "You may want to back up. I think this lunatic is about to attack me, again. I'll answer your questions after she's disabled."

Upon having it confirmed this man was in fact a demon, Madam Enigma snarled and pounced. Just before she could slash with razor sharp claws the murderous heroine had to flip backwards. This let her avoid a roundhouse kick that had come out of nowhere. From her new spot five feet away from the demon she slashed down with her right fist. In it's wake a lethal air pressure wave was launched at Ranma. He countered by tossing a bolt of fire into the path of her projectile.

"Do you know what your problem is?" Ranma asked as he casually grabbed Enigma's wrist and flipped her through the air. "And it's one shared by every 'hero' I've seen since arriving here." He leaned back to avoid a pair of claw swipes aimed at his head. "You rely too much on one limited set of maneuvers." He flipped over Madam Enigma and threw a punch at her lower lumbar which was dodged easily.

"You also tend to jump to conclusions without the full facts." Madam Enigma dashed backwards and unleashed a beam of green laser light from her eyes which singed Ranma's arm. "Do you attack me because I'm a demon? What difference does it make?" An ax kick caused Madam Enigma to weave to the side, only to run face first into a fist. "The only people I've fought since getting here were you 'heroes' when you attack me without cause or when the street gangs try to mug me."

"Not that I can talk about relying on one type of move too much. I was like that too once," He said as he tied up the heroine. "But then spending five hundred years or so training in martial arts under various masters has helped me overcome the flaws my style originally had. Now Mason-San, I imagine you're here about my students. They are fine, but I wont let them risk their lives until I'm confidant they wont get killed in seconds. I'm rather tired of resets every six months."

Wings of Recursion

part two

Sometimes I hate my job. I mean, you would think a recursive loop similar to my home dimension would be nice and relaxing. Or at least familiar. But noooo, this loop just has to have widely used time travel. It's taking most of my time just to prevent more problems then these loops are suppose to fix. Fortunately I have a few allies this time around. Unfortunately those same allies are the ones causing me the most trouble.

There was a time when temporal mechanics would have been so much Greek to me. Then I got instated as this dimension's guardian of time. A fancy name for what should merely be a caretaker. My predecessor however was a moron. She used time it's self for her amusement. And not just on rare occasions. No, that would have been bad enough. She had to do so almost on a weekly basis for an unbelievably long time.

From what I understand the guardian of time normally doesn't need to know temporal mechanics. Not me though, I had to have it shoved sideways into my head. I had to know what was wrong with the time stream so I could figure out how to fix it. Cause and Effect, they should be constant. And yet they aren't anymore. That's a problem you see. It's a seriously bad problem. If left unchecked this entire time line was going to break down within a century.

To fix things I had to select a group of people who represented various universal constants. Earth, air, fire, water, light, dark, chaos, order, and time, these all needed someone to anchor them. I got lucky and found two people who represent two universal constants each. These anchors I blessed, or maybe cursed with being mostly exempt from each chrono reset. Effective immortality for as long as it takes for time to be repaired. The ability to grow in skill and knowledge to unknown limits.

Last time I talked with Mister Nightbane he'd expressed a distaste for immortality which I quite honestly agree with. He also chewed me out about where the resets start at. But that's not my fault. I've no clue why it always starts there. If I could I would aid him by changing when they begin. Fate however is a fickle thing. What must be must be, and some things must remain constant.

Maybe in the next loop I'll be able to relax.

**Author Notes:**

For an image of Madam Enigma go to my Photobucket account, profile Red_Knight1979. There you will find a screenshot from City of Heroes for both at rest and one for 'combat'. You can also find images for several other characters that have cropped up in my stories.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½ or any other anime or manga that may crop up. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

Wings of Convergence

_Earth 3_

"_How do I keep getting into these messes?" Ranma Nightbane thought as she pulled herself out of a wall..._

After waking up to a table induced headache the young appearing demon had set out on her own. After all Ranma had told them, neither of the elder sisters wanted anything to do with 'him' and the youngest would rather try killing him. Such was not the way to establish a relationship. As Ranma had told them; "If a Saotome must marry one of your daughters then I am no longer a Saotome."

Ordinarily such a proclamation would have meant he was ronin. But such was not the case for Ranma. The Nightbane family was not originally from Japan, yet records of it did exist. It took little to prove himself, and by extension herself to be a member of that clan. Just a demonstration of her unique nature to verify membership in the demon clan not seen in centuries. Not that many knew the Nightbane clan was one of demons. Or that it's only member previously had died fifteen hundred years previous.

After re-founding the Nightbane clan another problem had cropped up. Namely that his wife (some in the know would say slave) was unable to return to Earth at the present moment. It had been decided that unaligned gods and demons were forbidden to set foot in the mortal world until the chrono loops had ended. And that meant a lack of ready nourishment. In the past Ranma had used a fiance for sustenance, or on rare occasions students.

That wasn't an option this time around however. Which meant using his abilities sparingly. Even then hunger was growing by the day. _The problem with being a succubus is that you can't really starve to death, _Ranma thought as it began to rain. _But I'm so hungry that I'm afraid what might happen if I do manage to feed. What if I kill the person, or worse make them like me?_

It was for this very reason that the now female demon was walking through the backwoods of Japan. The red silk shirt and kung fu pants Ranma normally wore absently reformed into a red leather corset with bikini bottom and fishnet stockings. Her travel slippers reformed into knee high leather boots with one inch heels. Even that minor expenditure of magic made the succubus's stomach growl loudly. It was a waste of power that she didn't even notice happening.

"What's that?" She wondered while sniffing the air. "It smells delicious!"

With no real thought behind her actions the apparent teenager found herself stalking towards where the aroma of female arousal was coming from. All thoughts of the possible consequences had fled. The only thing Ranma could focus on was her intense hunger. So focused was Ranma Nightbane didn't notice when she entered a two story house. Nor did she notice the shrine near the house.

_**XxXxX**_

There are some things in the Masaki home that inspire great fear. Of them all three stood out the most. The first of them was one former space pirate being bored. Another was a self proclaimed 'greatest scientific genius in the universe' expressing interest in something. The third such event was a blond ditz named Mihoshi being anywhere near sophisticated technology. That all three were occurring at once was cause for alarm.

So when a teenage boy with his hair tied in a short pigtail saw a winged woman of crimson tresses stalk into his home he shuddered. He and the younger princess of Jurai had taken to the shrine for different reasons. He did so to avoid the girls. Sasami had joined him to be with her 'big brother'. Still and all, he figured that this stranger may be a threat. And so Tenchi Masaki started down to his house.

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 62_

His name was Anmai Masaki Jurai, and he was sixteen years old. Or at least physically that was how old he appeared. Anmai's actual age was far greater, although many of those seven hundred years had been spent in stasis. As the prince of Jurai he shouldn't have been on earth. And yet there was a good reason why he stayed rather then going home. Several of them in fact. The most minor of them being that Earth had once been his home in another life.

Another far more important reason was because the person he loved lived on Earth. Not that Anmai had told her in so many words. No, he expressed how he felt in other ways. At times it felt weird to love her. And yet how could he not love his Tenchi? She who had gone to be cursed that she could better understand him? Ten years had passed since the day her love had returned. And soon they would be wed.

"If only the others could agree to share." Anmai muttered with a sigh.

Gazing down at his love, and lately lover brought a smile to his face. _Well, better get breakfast started. Washu-Chan wants everyone in her lab after we eat. _After stroking the woman beside him one last time he stood and headed for the furo. Twenty minutes later it was Sasami Jurai who emerged dressed in blue silk pants and a yellow half dress. Her cyan hair was done up in it's customary twin pony tails. The teenage girl skipped into the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast for the household.

A loud hum followed by a large tidal wave heralded the arrival of Mihoshi

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 13_

War can change people. It turns the kind hearted into killers. The horror can scare a hard man so badly he becomes soft. One thing no one would expect however was for Tatawaki Kuno to have survived his sole excursion into the horrors of war. He had last been seen charging into an endless horde of creatures. His dismembered limbs had been found littering the battle field. And yet his torso had been missing.

In the ten years since his disappearance the truth had come out about the madman's heroic end. In part this had been due to all technology no longer working. Then there were the clearly unnatural beings which roamed openly. So when Kuno showed up at the Tendo home with a leaf shaped shield on one arm it caused a stir. The walking dead man was holding a large stone of some sort with kanji engraved in it.

"At last the foul sorcerer Saotome shall meet his end! I, Kuno Tatawaki, the blue Thunder, shall hereby banish the sorcerer to the deepest pits of the seven hells!"

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 20_

For close to five hundred years they had been partners. Originally it had been a teacher and student relationship. Over time however it had grown into something more. First they grew to become friends and allies. Risking one's life daily in the defense of the innocent tends to forge strong bonds after all. But it wasn't until they had left the earth behind two centuries ago that Samantha Bricklbuster and Ranko Masaki had taken things further.

Five centuries is a long time. It is time enough to find love. Time enough to master unarmed combat to unbelievable levels. Time enough to experience heartbreak. To watch everyone you care for grow old and die several times. It was heart wrenching to see your children pass on while you stay eternally young. A fact both women had discovered long ago. It was but one reason they had decided to leave their home world for good.

They joined the galactic police for lack of anything better to do. And yet even the endless battle against corruption and piracy was starting to grow tiresome. It had happened before, and would happen again most likely. So they retired from active duty. Thanks to a gift from one of Ranko's aunts both Ranko and Samantha were able to resume their birth forms, if they desired. Not that they wanted to most times. Both had different reasons, but they preferred being female the majority of the time.

"I swear Sam, if you so much think of crashing I'll hurt you so badly our great great great great grandkids feel it." The threat came from Ranko, who was currently five months pregnant with triplets. Again. "And you'd better believe you're going through this as soon as I can change again."

Samantha, or Sam as Ranko's spouse was known when male winced. Her last pregnancy had been bad. But that it wasn't the only reason for the reaction. "Dear, maybe you should get into a crash seat. There's a distortion in our flight path and I can't avoid it."

"Damn," Ranko muttered. "And we were so close to Earth too."

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 15_

Kaiya sighed in relief as she finally got home. Her last mission had been rather rough. As such she really wanted to be reunited with her family. The kids were a handful at times. Yet it was worth it in the end. Having a loving husband as well as a co-wife that she also loved meant a lot. As did having her mother around. The minor fact that Kaiya had been born male never even came up.

Three blocks from her home the woman found herself falling into a hole that appeared out of no where.

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 3_

He entered the house just in time to see the winged stranger tackle Ryoko. The tackle sent both through a closet door. While normally this wouldn't have been a problem, this particular closet also contained the entrance to a super genius's lab. Even then it shouldn't have been a problem. The portal only appeared for those authorized to enter. Or at least that was how it was suppose to work.

Instead of them crashing into the back wall however a swirling blue portal appeared which the two fell through. Tenchi made a snap decision and called everyone else to join him. Clearly the person was after Ryoko for some reason, and that was never good. Without waiting the young man charged through the portal into Washu's lab himself. What he saw was not his friend being attacked however.

At least it wasn't an attack as Tenchi had expected. In fact it looked like... His nose erupted in a geyser of blood, causing Tenchi to fall backwards in a faint. Moments later Sasami and Ayeka entered the lab as well. What they found was Ryoko pinned against a large machine of unknown nature by a winged woman. At first what was happening didn't sink in. Then a beet red Ayeka covered her sister's eyes.

"It is time to leave," she said aloud.

Even so the princess was having trouble convincing herself to actually leave. There was something about what was occurring that almost compelled participation. Stirring from the ground brought Ayeka's attention to Tenchi and where he had collapsed. The impressive arc of blood caused her to twitch. But not quite as much as Tenchi was. Just then a loud moan echoed through the chamber.

_**XxXxX**_

The hunger was all consuming. So when the delectable aroma had filled the air Ranma found herself unable to resist. Before she knew it there was a busty woman beneath her being fondled. Another woman was passed out on the floor nearby, clearly exhausted. This fact alone was alarming. As was that the hunger was nearly gone. Instead of feeling starved, Nightbane merely felt like she could use a light snack.

As Ranma stepped back she reformed cloths around her body. This time it was a pair of black kung fu pants and a bright red tunic with a plunging neckline which left little to the imagination. Her boots became outdoor slippers as well. The cyan haired beauty that had provided nourishment slowly sank to the ground now that she wasn't being held up. The glazed expression hinted that the meal had lasted a long time.

Clothed once more, she knelt down beside the second woman in concern. _She looks like a noble. Let me see here, cloths were ripped apart, most likely by me._ The unknown woman was rolled over and her back examined._ Bumps forming on her back. And quickly I might add. This is not good. I was afraid something like that might happen. I will need to stick around at least long enough to explain things._

A child's voice shouted "No! Don't push..." before being cut off by a loud explosion. The machine the first woman was leaning against began to glow ominously. There didn't seem to be much time, so Ranma threw both women across the room and hoped they would be all right. As the machine detonated Nightbane found herself being embedded into a wall.

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 62_

Sasami looked on in wonder. Her 'aunt' Washu had created yet another impossibility, this time a dimensional viewer. Or at least that's what the genius claimed it was. Naturally something had gone wrong however. Mihoshi had shown up from who knew where and bumped into something. There had been an explosion, and now a vortex was pulling the 'young' princess into it. Surprisingly no one else was being affected.

"_Well this is unusual," _Tsunami told the girl as Sasami entered the vortex.

The voice had been faint. Communication it's self had been difficult of late. With age the merger was nearly complete. Within a few years both realized there would no longer be a difference between Sasami and Tsunami. It was an idea which was long familiar to the effective teenager. Yet it also saddened her. Tsunami had been a constant companion in her life ever since an accident centuries ago. To lose someone who was both a mother, sister, and friend was heart rending.

_What about the weddings?_ Sasami thought in panic. _We have to get back!_

"_And we will somehow. I find it amusing our father insists on two weddings, one with you as the groom and another with Tenchi as groom after the babies are born."_

_Er... oops? I already apologized for drinking so much sake last month. Light's approaching._

"_Indeed it is. I do wonder why you slept with all three of them that night though."_

_It was a mistake, honest Tsunami-chan! It was dark, I thought they were all Tenchi._

"_Sasami, they were all in the same bed at once."_

_I was drunk?_

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 13_

Ranma emerged from his lake with surprise. There was a time it had been just a small koi pond. But that was before the world got thrown into chaos. In the years since the city of Tokyo had been ruined. Many people had died, and not all from starvation. Tendo Kasumi had kept the pact faithfully, turning her family's dojo into a shrine dedicated to 'Ranma of the lake'. He was already becoming a legend.

But this, this was unexpected. He'd seen Kuno die ten years ago. It had happened in a horrific battle. One which had forever marked the then youth as a warrior instead of just a martial artist. From there Ranma had taken on a new role; that of champion for a goddess. And that was a role that completely mortified him. It was thankful that he only infrequently needed to become Sailor Venus these days.

Kuno Tatawaki in life had most likely been insane. In death he'd been called a hero by those who knew the truth. But now he was an abomination, a monster that shouldn't exist. _Sigh, time ta get workin. Gotta protect everyone. Least he don't feel like a yoma. _The young fae groaned and prepared to combat the latest menace to life's sanctity. _I'll worry bout how later._

"Even dead ya still can't get it right. I ain't no sorcerer. Never was. Kami above I SHOWED ya the curse dozens of times." Ranma snorted as he began to move at high speed towards the living dead teen. "Gotta put ya down for ya hurt someone."

When the madman didn't pull out a sword he got worried. When the stone began to glow Ranma knew something bad was about to happen. He could feel the demonic magic after all. A beam of fiery red energy leaped from the stone towards Ranma. Even as that happened the young faerie launched a blade of air at Kuno's head. His body flared in agony even as the dead madman collapsed to the ground. Then the world started to swirl in unnatural ways.

_**XxXxX**_

_Earth 3_

Kaiya Twitched as the hole engulfed her. _It isn't fair,_ she thought tiredly. _I was almost home!_ She didn't know how long she fell. The white haired ninja did know that it was long enough to mostly recover from her last mission. Then she felt a familiar change take place. Facial structure elongated as the rest of her body twisted in ways that shouldn't occur. Soon it was a white furred fox that was falling instead of the woman who had started the decent.

And she dreamed._ Eyes open to reveal a forest. As Kaiya examines her surroundings a __rustling comes from the left. Then a red furred fox emerges from the brush chasing a rabbit. The fox has nine tails which are waving in the air. If she could smile, the white furred kitsune would have been grinning from ear to ear. Since the age of three the nine tailed fox 'demon' had been the closest thing to a mother available._

_In a sense, they were in fact mother and daughter, even though it wasn't originally by birth. __She had been born a b__oy named __Naruto Uzumaki, unknowing that the fourth hokage was her father. Or why the village had hated her.__** Wait**__, she thought. __**Fur? But...**__ The red fox seemed to know what the issue was. With a nod of the head and a flick of the tail both were off running after a rabbit._

"_Not that I'm complaining, but why am I a fox?" _

_Kyuubi might have smirked at her adopted kit, but foxes can't smirk. "Because someone tried to summon you, kit. Not very well either. I haven't felt a summon like this since I only had three tails."_

Further discussion got interrupted for the moment as a painful landing jarred Kaiya awake. _**Well this is interesting**_, Kyuubi commented upon them taking stock. Kaiya's landing had been on top of someone, a child of about twelve it seemed. Oddly enough, an older version of the girl flew across the large room head first and impacted a bat winged woman with fiery red hair. Nearby was a teenage boy in unfamiliar cloths laying passed out on the ground. _Someone was mating recently,_ Kaiya noted after sniffing the air.

_**Careful, I smell a demon.**_ Another teenager with a longer pigtail, this time sheathed in flames fell from the ceiling onto the floor near Kaiya. **_And a faerie,_** Kyubbi wryly added. _What is a faerie? And WHAT THE?_ The surprise proved to be due to a dark green dart shaped metal object. The object was easily sixty feet long and twenty feet wide. And it had come tearing out of a rip in the air. The metallic object then traversed the large chamber they were in while spinning on a horizontal axis and crashed into a wall rear end first.

Within an instant the hilt of a kunai was in Kaiya's mouth. With one of her tails she lifted the child onto her back and looked for the source of the attack. That it was an attack seemed obvious. Oddly there was no entry hole anymore. Clear indication the object was the biggest threat. After depositing the child as far away from that dart like thing as possible, Kaiya approached it cautiously. Some of the others appeared to be joining her in defense too.

The winged woman had managed to pull herself out of the wall. From the size of the crater it was surprising this woman could even move, let alone stand. The boy who had been aflame too joined her. They both smelled similar, which was confusing. It was also disregarded for the moment. That both man and woman were uninjured after what had obviously happened to them impressed the displaced ninja too.

Light started to show in three faint lines forming an inverted U on the surface of the object. Moments later voices could be heard. But what was being said Kaiya couldn't tell.

_**XxXxX**_

"Now aren't you glad I insisted on the deluxe premium inertial dampeners?" Ranko Masaki asked as she helped her companion.

The companion was known as Samantha Bricklbuster, officer of the galactic police to most of the galaxy. Or at least she was in their own galaxy. The exit ramp descended, but couldn't reach all the way to the ground due to the fact their ship was part way up the wall. Ranko looked out and blinked at what she saw. There standing before her was the largest fox on earth, and with nine tails waving behind it to boot. Flanking the fox was herself with bat wings and her male form.

Turning to the pregnant woman Ranko sighed. "Dear, is there something you forgot to mention about the scan?"

"Such as?" The blue haired officer asked.

"I don't know, maybe the fact we traveled through a dimensional nexus, again. Or the fact it closed already?"

"Oh, I guess. I thought you meant about your doppelgangers. At least it looks like Washu-Chan's lab."

While Ranko immediately jumped down, the other woman raised a hand instead. This ambient moisture to condense and chill. The fox tilted it's head to the side curiously as ice began to form a staircase which Sam used to get down. From the way the two people were staring it became increasingly clear the translators had been broken in the crash somehow. And the others in the chamber appeared to be coming to as well.

"I'm detective first class Ranko Saotome, sorry about this." Ranko said in Japanese as she rubbed the back of her neck nervously.

_Elsewhere_

Alarms were blaring even as a string of explosions rocked the lab. Amidst the chaos stood a child with crab like red hair. The lab belonged to her, but at the moment it was immaterial. She was still blushing deeply from a mental link to Ryoko. After opening a portal to the lobby the self proclaimed greatest scientific genius in the universe went to investigate what the blond engine of destruction had wrought.

The only good thing was that the bane of her existence had somehow wandered out of the lab. The ruins of her latest invention were still smoking. As well as a ship of unknown design being embedded part way up one wall. Across from the smoking ruins was a deep crater in a wall, with both Ryoko and Ayeka laying on the ground near it. Sasami was laying near them, yet something was off. Spying Sasami also laying across from the wrecked ship drew a raised eyebrow.

Then there was watching the intruders. Two of them seemed almost to be imperfect clones of each other. The large fox was clearly intelligent, but beyond that was an unknown. Everyone seemed to be just talking, so Washu decided it must not be an attack. The arrival of a small furry animal brought everyone's attention to it. With a cat like sound the cabbit launched it's self towards the ruined shuttle and began to eat it.

XxXxX

Ryo-Oki had been feeling weird for days. The thoughts coming from her partner didn't help much either. It was a combination of rage and desire that Ryoko was feeling, but desire for what? Not carrots, that was for sure. The cabbit knew her partner was really tired now though, As she phased into the lab a shiny green object came into view. It was really big. It was metal. And it looked delicious.

With a happy "Maiah!" Ryo-Oki dived into what looked to her like a all you can eat buffet. Reactions of the new people didn't even register during her oversized meal. The nice carrot lady however was saying something about Tenchi and babies. It wasn't impotant though. What was important was eating. Bite by delectable bite she savored the flavor and texture of the ship. The only problem was that the more she ate, the worse the weird feeling got for Ryo-Oki.

_**XxXxX**_

_What happened? We were in Washu-Chan's lab when Mihoshi-neesan started pushing buttons. Then there was the black hole... Oh no! _Sasami opened her eyes in a start. Almost immediately she found her sister and Ryoko-chan. There was something wrong with them though. And where was Tenchi-chan? The princess looked about in obvious concern. Finally in the distance she spotted a form laying on the ground.

As she ran the feeling of wrongness grew stronger. It was Tenchi-chan laying there, but it was a male Tenchi. _What happened to our baby?_

_**To be continued?**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Ranma ½ or any other anime or manga that may crop up. I make no money from this, nor do I plan on trying to. This is purely for fun.

**Warning:** There will be OOC for some characters. It is an AU though, so that can almost be expected.

Wings of Space

Life for a ninja of the Hidden Leaf village can be dangerous. And this is especially true if one is also the adopted daughter of the nine tailed kitsune. In her life Kaiya had done things few would have dreamed her capable. Among them changing genders and species at the age of three. That had been but one of her many accomplishments. And the young woman would gladly trade it all away just to be back with her family once more.

Six months ago she had been ripped from her world by a summoning spell, according to her adopted mother. She didn't know who had done the deed. Or how to get home. And it was a minor mystery how she got convinced to travel with a bunch of doppelgangers of the same person. Each of them was the same person, yet there were clear differences. They acted similar to each other, yet were not.

The blue haired gender shifter claimed to be a princess from some place called Jurai. Where this nation was the kitsune woman didn't really know. It wasn't a name she'd heard before. This girl said her name was Sasami, although she called herself Anmai when male. It was her that did most of the chores and cooking for everyone. But it wasn't because no one else offered. Rather Sasami refused the help most times.

Another girl also had hair a shade of icy blue. Everyone called her Sam, although she said her name was Samantha. When they first met Kaiya had thought the woman related to her husband. Sam's ice jutsu also puzzled the kitsune ninja. There was no chakra in the ice, nor did Sam require any hand signs. The girl could be extremely rude at times, yet also displayed a selfless nobility the ninja had never witnessed before.

Without thought to the danger or of reward Sam would throw herself into danger. And she did so to protect and defend. It was a trait shared by the girl's wife Ranma Masaki. That one was a definite puzzle. She was human, yet smelled like a cat. Was a girl, yet was the father of Sam's baby. And both claimed to be impossibly old. They also claimed to be 'intergalactic' police with experiences in something called trans-dimensional travel.

It was a claim that had apparently been backed up. The next member of the makeshift squad was another version of Ranma it seemed, this one calling himself Dreamweaver. Or at times he referred to himself as 'Ranma of the lake'. Like Sasami, he could change genders. He also was what her mother called a 'faerie', whatever those were. Getting information on what a faerie was proved to be challenging though.

And finally there was 'Ranma Nightbane', the only one of the group apparently native to this world. She was a demon it seemed. One who fed not on misery but carnal release. That one worried Kaiya the most. She still wasn't sure how to deal with this demon. And from the way everyone moved they were all fighters on the level of Gai, at least.

As if being stuck in another dimension with no ready way home wasn't bad enough, now she was on another planet entirely. Or at least it looked like a planet. Supposedly this was all some giant 'space station', oceans and cliffs included. While the red haired child figured out how to send everyone home, Masaki and her wife had decided all the various displaced would be entered into something called the 'gee pee academy'.

_Six months ago_

"I know you do not like me," Nightbane whispered into Kayla's ear. "I also am aware you are not a fox, but are instead a kitsune. You desire to hide your nature, and this I will aid with. However my generosity has a price. Once you can shift forms again I desire that you provide me with nourishment once a week. And relax, what I desire is not painful. You in fact will enjoy it greatly."

The white furred nine tailed kitsune merely growled at the demonic woman. It was a good thing a kunai was still in her mouth, or biting words might have been exchanged. The growl only increased in volume as something was quickly placed around her neck. _She'll pay,_ Kaiya thought. To this her mother commented **Maybe you should be careful. We're both still weakened from being brought here. Where did she get a leash from in **_**that**_** outfit?**

"Since there's no danger, I will be taking my pet for a walk. Upon returning we should discuss what has happened." The demon told everyone. "Come along Pearl."

The german shepard sized fox continued to growl as she was dragged away. Once out of sight of the others the demon stopped. "As I said, I will protect your secret. And you know my price. But before you reject my ofter let me explain things. I am not a 'good' person, but neither am I an 'evil' one. Between heaven and hell, I have chosen to be an independent agent. I help others when I can, but do what I must to survive.

"Cross me, and I shall do what ever it takes to protect myself and those I care for. But it is not just me you have to consider. While you may have nine tails, it is clear you are not as powerful as it should indicate. If you were then the summoning spell that pulled you here would not have worked. It tried to latch on to me, and likely others as well. That you appeared here indicates the caster made a critical mistake, so I may know who cast the spell. Not that it'll help much."

_The present_

It was with a sigh of relief that Kaiya finally managed to regain a human form. She had missed being able to walk upright. Having thumbs had also been sorely missed. But both paled to how much she missed her family. True to the demon's word though, she actively hidden the fact that the kitsune was anything more then a multi-tailed fox. The 'price' of said aid now loomed heavily on her mind.

_Should I do it?_ The young woman thought with evident disgust. That it was being forced upon her made the demanded payment even harder to swallow. **I'd say go for it, she has proven honorable so far. **She thought about it for a few minutes. _But it'd be wrong, besides I'm happily married. _The reply shocked Kaiya. **So? What's the problem? It's not like your mate doesn't have others too.**

"No," Kaiya muttered aloud.

_Elsewhere_

Queen Beryl couldn't help but feel this was entirely too familiar. Almost like she'd been in this situation far too many times. Before her stood one of the four generals, and he was reporting a failure. That her first attempt at gathering the needed energy was disrupted came as no surprise, oddly. Hearing that a 'sailor moon' had been the one who thwarted it sent a chill down the negaverse queen's spine.

"Plans have changed. Call of all gathering operations immediately."

Privately Beryl wondered why she felt such fear upon hearing that name.

_Gates of Eternity_

Eric pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. This was a massive problem. And the solution was almost as bad. He couldn't prevent the breaches, doing that would cause more trouble then it solved. Nor could he just send everyone back. Fortunately he had permission for one other idea. Provided they survived until the next reset, these dimensional visitors would be returned to their homes as if only ten days had passed.

"I'm really hating this job," he muttered.

_Galaxy Police Academy_

Officer Ranma Masaki purred as he prowled through the halls. Ever since he'd been made the champion of Bast he'd been required to use his feline form on occasion. To be honest, it felt more natural then either human form did. And that still disturbed him after five hundred years. His black fur stood out among the bright buildings, but then again he wasn't trying to hide either. The other instructors already know of his 'condition'.

Shapeshifters while not common were also not unheard of. Most could only change into one alternate form though, and could never change gender. Shapeshifters who changed form based on water temperature were practically unheard of. Officer Masaki on the other hand was not only a shapeshifter, but had four forms. They were feline male, feline female, human male, and human female.

Soon he'd be assigned to a ship most likely. The others too, although it was unlikely they all would be assigned the same ship. _With my luck of course,_ Ranma thought as he entered the women's changing area. Soon it would be time to teach physical education to the recruits, which meant it was time to return to human form. Carefully the feline turned on a faucet with cold water. After swiping a paw through the liquid stream the now female cat turned off the flow.

She padded into the track field and eyed everyone there. There were several new faces in the class. Although one of them smelled familiar. One blond girl smelled nearly exactly like the pet fox that Nightbane person kept. Since this was the first time she'd arrived in this form, the students didn't at first realize the red cat was their instructor. That Ranma was about to pull something from a novel she'd red long ago was amusing to the woman.

As the young looking instructor began her class another more serious meeting was occurring in the administrative hall. A striking woman with pale green hair sat across from a man with short cropped blond hair. What had been said before was of little impact. Or at least little impact to others. Whatever it was though had the woman laughing in an eerie manner and the man sweating bullets.

The man finally managed to get the conversation back on a topic he was comfortable. "Are you sure those six should be assigned the same berth?"

"Of course," Lady Sato said with a bone chilling laugh. "What could possibly go wrong?"

Even as she spoke a chill ran down both their spines.

**Author Notes:**

Okay, first of all sorry for the last chapter bout not giving credit where credit is due. I'd finished writing it then posted when tired, so didn't properly credit it.

The version of Naruto named Kaiya used in this and the previous chapter come from the story Forgiveness of a Kitsune, and were used with permission from it's author. Anmai/Sasami come from my story Ranma's Honor and it's as yet unposted sequel. Ranma Masaki and Sam Bricklbuster come from my story Wild Horses Can't Be Tamed, some 500 years after the story in fact. Ranma Dreamweaver on the other hand comes from my Old Time Magic series of stories. Then there of course is Ranma Nightbane, the central star of Wings of Paradise and one of the main stars of this endeavor.

This 'loop' has been the longest one I've written so far. But the next one is also proving to be somewhat long. It's still suppose to be samples of each loop though, not full stories. Later I may revisit this world for a bit though.


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Ranma ½ or any other property which might show up. What I do own is the idea for this story it's self. I make no money writing this, nor do I desire fame. It's purely for my own entertainment. If others enjoy this story too, that's all I could ask for.

**Warning: **This story is an Alternate Timeline. There will be out of character interactions. If everyone stayed in character, events would never have deviated from cannon. While I hope for humor, the story may take several serious and/or dark turns at times. Then again my sense of humor may not be yours.

Wings of Confusion

There are certain truths that are immutable. The sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Fish breath water instead of air. Nabiki Tendo is greedy. All these are true, and they do not change. Another thing that was indisputable was that each time loop would begin with Ranma Nightbane waking up from a table impacting his head. It always happened, and likely would continue happening for as long as these loops lasted.

It was with more then a little surprise that Nightbane awoke in a very pink bedroom as a female wearing a night gown, also pink. _Okay, no headache this time. That is odd. I don't recognize the room either. A picture of... Me? And three people I don't know, is this suppose to be my room?_ A diary was found on the desk. Opening it provided a name, Usagi. _That is, that is fouled up. At least I'm suppose to be sixteen._

The alarm clock said it was barely five in the morning. A hello kitty calendar said it was probably Monday. From what month it was turned to, likely a school day. With a groan Ranma checked the closet. _Ugh, not skirts. I can't fight in those. They are too short, and the colors are horrid. The blouses aren't much better either. Wait, where are my bracers? It is a good thing I found a way to hide my wings without them in Paragon._

There was one outfit set out already, and it sent shivers down Ranma's spine. It was clearly a school uniform. It was also clearly worse then anything in the closet in terms of decency. It might have taken a hundred years, but even the 'great' Ranma Nightbane had learned feminine modesty. It had helped to have memories of centuries living as Amnara Nightbane. Not that she'd had much modesty either.

"Aren't there any pants?" She muttered aloud.

With another sigh she realized the use of magic to create cloths would have to wait. Without a known and steady food source using magic would have to be kept to an absolute minimum. A lesson had been learned though, starving herself was _not_ a good idea. That meant finding a way to feed sooner rather then later. There were times being an unaligned demon was more trouble then it was worth.

Three hours later two adults, one male and one female, looked out at the back yard in wonder. Their daughter was in the back yard going through some sort of dance, again. It was the first time they had ever witnessed such a thing. That the dance was actually a series of martial arts kata didn't register. After all, they knew Usagi didn't know any martial arts. In fact it was well known how clumsy the girl was.

Which raised a few questions. The first of which was 'when did she learn this?' Following that her parents were wondering when Usagi had stopped being clumsy. For almost an hour they had watched their baby girl flow through graceful movement after graceful movement. The dance slowly wound down to a conclusion. In it's wake the two parents clapped. The unexpected sound drew Ranma's attention.

"Hello... mother? Father?" She asked hesitantly.

_China_

At that same moment another awakening was taking place in the remote mountains of China. One moment Usagi Chiba had been falling asleep next to her husband of fifteen years. The next she was emerging from an ice cold pool of water and wearing an ill fitting dingy white training gi. It was very unusual. Normally when this happened she awoke in her bedroom at nearly eight in the morning.

_Let's take stock,_ Usagi thought to herself. _There's an overweight man holding a sign and saying something about curses. There's a panda in a training gi standing on one of the bamboo poles. It's morning. And I'm soaking wet. Wait, curses? Why does that sound familiar? Ugh, can't remember. Did that guy just say 'spring of drowned girl'? I know I should recognize this from somewhere._

When hot liquid was poured on the 'young' Usagi she found her body shifting into that of a teenage boy. With a horrified scream 'he' glared at the former panda nearby. An aura of power black as midnight, sprang into existence into the newly turned boy. Upon seeing it a bald and overweight martial artist named Genma took off running. All thoughts of calling his son a 'weak girl' had died, at least for the moment. All that mattered was keeping his skin intact.

Still enraged, Usagi chased after the panda-man. As he ran the ancient youth felt a well of little used power surge. Usagi tapped into it, and found a whip of dark energy forming in his hand. With a flick of his wrist the whip lashed out. It easily managed to wrap around Genma's neck. Another flick of Usagi's wrist sent the overweight man flying into a cliff. While still angry, seeing the cloud of dust and rubble managed to sate him, for the moment. The whip vanished back into the ether.

If there had been anyone on the cliff he didn't notice.

_Tokyo_

The class was starting to get worried. Usagi Tsukino had shown up to class on time. She never showed up to class on time, yet even before the first student had arrived the red haired beauty was seated in her desk. Not only that, but she was actually paying attention in class. Both were commonly considered signs of impending doom. That they were happening at the same time could only mean the world was going to end.

As the morning progressed students and faculty alike grew increasingly scared. It wasn't just one class that Usagi was paying attention to. It was all of them. Math, history, even english classes were all focused on with unwavering intensity. By the time lunch period had rolled around everyone was walking on egg shells. While it was true people can change, they never did so overnight. Everyone in the class gave a collective sigh of relief when they saw the red haired girl eat a bento three times the size of their own within seconds.

The next class was gym, which Ranma was not looking forward to. In all the time she'd lived control over the curse had yet to be gained. As she slowly approached the locker room the air around Nightbane grew colder. _Ugh, I am tired of everyone here thinking that I am that ditz. And gym class? Why do I need that?_ _On my own I maintain a level of fitness not seen in centuries, at least._ Still grumbling under her breath, Ranma entered the gymnasium.

Upon entering it, she revised her opinion. The room it's self had three rows of bleachers completely smashed. There were holes and scorch marks on the walls and ceiling. As well as deep furrows on the ground and a wall. And in the middle of the gym stood a familiar blond giantess. _What has happened here?_ Ranma had to wonder. The giantess seemed surprised by Ranma's presence too. Which was comforting in a way. It meant that not everyone blindly thought her to be Usagi.

The blond woman sighed tiredly and spoke. "Greetings class, I'm sure you're wondering where Tanaka-San is. Unfortunately he had a run-in with a werewolf last night. My name is Mason Susan, and I will be taking over his classes. Excuse me a moment."

Mason pulled a pair of odd looking goggles over her eyes and shifted the ever present trench coat to draw a pistol that looked more like a toy. Ranma looked in the direction Mason had turned to face, and felt concerned. There floating in the air was what appeared to be a samurai in full armor with sword drawn. Several gasps told her the sword was real, not a part of the spirit. A few comments indicated no one else could see the samurai as well. As beams of pure energy blasted from the pistol Nightbane was leaping through the air with a foot extended.

"Hey, that tickles," the succubus shouted as her foot impacted the blade.

'That' proved to be the beam of energy which had splashed harmlessly against her back. The katana spiraled out of control until it was embedded in the floor a foot away from fellow classmates. The samurai spirit had vanished when Ranma kicked it's blade, only to reappear and recover it's sword. _Not good, that sword it's self is the foci of possession. _Nightbane moved with such speed that she seemed to teleport. And it was a good thing she did.

Steel bit into flesh as Ranma imposed herself between the katana and a red haired teen from her class. _Shit, it is enchanted!_ The whine of an energy weapon being fired filled the air again and again. The unexpectedly intense agony caused the demoness's eyes to roll back into her head. With consciousness fading quickly, she didn't see the specter discorporating. Nor did Ranma see the sword being picked up and taken into the gym teacher's office.

Naturally no one noticed the small black cat watching.

_Gates of Eternity_

There is a place outside of time that is perpetually shrouded in mist. Within that mist stands a single arched doorway. It isn't connected to anything. Nor does it serve any discernible purpose with it's existence. And yet this door is the single greatest secret in the known universe. The number of people who know of it can be counted on one hand. And of those, only one has regular access to the door. This door is known simply as the Gates of Eternity, or time gate to some.

Before the gates stands a lone figure holding a key shaped staff. In his life he has used many names, many identities. But the first one he ever had is Eric Von Mason. A lot can be said about this man. That he is brave. His loyalty too has been tested many times. His honor has been said to be beyond reproach by many in the past. It has also been said that if Hellen of Troy's face could launch a thousand ships, his would send them home. In other words Eric Von Mason is not a pretty man. In fact it is the opposite.

At the moment there is another word that best describes him, and that is pissed. "I can't believe it! There's actually someone manipulating the loops? When I find whoever's doing this they'll wish they'd never been born!"

After contacting his wife the man began the exhausting task of tracking down who is messing with time, which he knew could very well take a thousand years.

_China_

It had rained earlier in the day. A fact which Usagi was content with, even if the man claiming to be her father hated being a panda. Privately she thought the form suited him. From what the moon princess had seen the man was fat and lazy. A skilled fighter, true. But he was nothing compared to her teacher. And if he thought pathetic distraction attempts were fighting dirty, she could definitely teach him a lesson. The Nightbane branch of Anything Goes cared about one thing only, winning the fight by any means needed.

Now the man from that training ground was leading them towards a village surrounded by wooden palisades. As they neared Usagi muttered a quick incantation to the Lady of Twilight. Demonic magic briefly flared, granting her the ability to reed and understand Chinese dialects. What the incantation did not do however was let her speak them. That only time and study could accomplish, there were no shortcuts. Or if there were the Lady of Twilight denied Usagi them.

"Honorable customers in luck. Today is tournament." The guilde told them in broken Japanese.

The panda had spotted a table laden with food and immediately started to eat. Usagi had considered joining in, but noticed a sign proclaiming it the first prize. _Stupid panda,_ she thought while watching the final fight in the contest. While both warrior maidens were clearly tired, it had been an enjoyable match to watch. So from where she sat Usagi clapped loud and hard. This then drew attention her way, as well as to the panda.

In a mandarin dialect the girl said "You, outsider! Your panda is eating my prize!"

Usagi sighed at what appeared to be the first in a likely long string of misunderstandings. "Guide, could you please explain to her that that isn't a panda, and that his actions are his own doing?"

_Tokyo-Juuban district_

A teenage girl with fiery red hair stood on the edge of a low building. She was wearing a black sailor fuku with white plunging neck that revealed ample cleavage and white trim. and Red bows adorned her stomach and back as well. The skirt was entirely too short to be decent, showing off her shapely butt. On her brow was a golden circlet with a red jewel in the center. Her hair was done up with two round buns, each trailing off into long pony tails. In the center of each bun was a red jeweled pin. Black elbow length gloves adorned each arm, with matching black knee length boots. In both cases the trim was done in an almost glowing shade of white.

"Parks are for playing tag and going on dates," the girl proclaimed. "I am the beautiful sailor suited warrior of lust and justice Sailor Eclipsed Moon, and I will punish you!"

As she drop kicked the latest monster to attack Juuban Eclipsed Moon thought. _I still can not believe I got roped into doing this instead of Usagi. And what is this 'warrior of lust and justice' thing?_ Casually Eclipsed Moon evaded a barrage of vines shot at her. While the monsters were getting increasingly dangerous, they still didn't exactly challenge her martial skill. _Then again,_ she thought as unexpected claws tore through the heroine's achilles tendon.

When a bitterly cold fog bank engulfed the park she tried to roll away but felt too sluggish. A vine managed to ensnare the injured sailor senshi. The sound of an energy beam echoed from no where and everywhere as someone cried "Crescent Beam, then a thump could be heard as it hit something. Someone else called out "Soul Fire" before a bolt of heat passed nearby. Yet another person cried "Supreme Thunder". A couple seconds later Eclipsed Moon was free yet still twitching from being electrocuted.

Soft hands in silk gloves grabbed her and dragged the injured senshi out of danger. Then the fog finally started to dissipate. The claws proved to have belonged to a demonically possessed house cat. A fact which made Eclipsed Moon feel a bit better. Cats after all were furry monsters out to devour flesh. Most were anyway. In fact now that the fog was gone hundreds of cats were swarming the area. And they were all converging on the senshi.

"Just what I didn't want to subject them to." Sailor Eclipsed Moon muttered as her 'loyal soldiers' were buried under a mountain of clawing and hissing flesh. "Moon tiara action!"

Eclipsed Moon removed her tiara, which turned into a disk of black energy. As it was thrown the senshi leader noticed it was barely traveling through the air. But then the monster it was thrown at also could barely move. Her allies too seemed caught in the distortion. Then with a shudder the distortion expanded to suround the senshi of the moon too. _Why are the cats unaffected by this field?_ Moon thought as the moon 'frizbee' made it's slow way towards their enemy at a pace that might take days to finish.

_Tokyo-Nerima district_

"_As you can see there has been no change so far in the unusual situation here in Juuban. Three days ago I'm informed the plant like akuma appeared and started attacking civilians. Athorities are still baffled by the distortion surrounding the battle between akuma and what I'm told was six teenage girls"_

Nabiki Tendo was grinning ear to ear as she watched the news program. Already several plans were going through the teenage girl's mind. This was definitive proof the sailor senshi existed. And that meant they could be tracked down. And there was a lot of money to be made by anyone who knew who the senshi were. Sailor Eclipsed Moon was very popular with boys for obvious reasons. While there were rabid fangirls of the other five senshi.

With her mind made up, the girl started out the door. Only to be brought to a halt by a most improbable sight. There was a panda carrying some blond haired girl over it's shoulder. The girl was wailing in a most annoying manner in a high pitched voice. And it was most definitely a girl. If the skirt hadn't given it away, what Nabiki saw underneath it would have. _Right, time to go,_ the middle tendo sister thought as she mechanically walked up to her bedroom. Her face felt like it was glowing from the deep blush.

"I'm no prude," she muttered. "But that was too much."

An hour later a still blushing Nabiki made her shaky way into the dining room. An obviously overweight man in a white training gi was sitting at the table. At least she thought it was suppose to be white. There was also a young man of maybe sixteen with dark hair tied in a most unusual style. _That almost looks like that girl's hairstyle._ The boy looked over and saw her. He smiled warmly, although there was a slight edge to his eyes.

"I didn't know you studied the Nightbane school of Anything Goes." He commented offhandedly. "As one of it's masters, I'll have to test your skills later."

_Tokyo-Juuban District_

As the dark energy disk finally impacted the yoma whatever unnatural field had slowed down time ended. It also seemed to snap the felines out of whatever had been controlling them. After that however Eclipsed Moon had no idea what occurred. The pain of hitting the ground, as well as a rock poking at a lightning induced hole in her side and mental exhaustion had caused the senshi to pass out. Because of this she didn't notice how or when she was moved.

By the time the red haired senshi had regained consciousness she was in the cherry hills shrine, most likely. She was also surrounded by five girls curled up and sleeping. Almost like Akane was after a neko incident back in Paragon. _Wait, neko-ken? I was afraid this might have happened. Ow, my side still hurts. I had thought this imbecilic transformation provided a means of speedy regeneration? Oh, that is right. Mother managed to hit me with her lightning assault._

As the other girls started to awaken the one known as Makoto Kino eyed Eclipsed Moon critically before saying "You know, dressing like that is not very manly."

"When will you drop this manliness obsession, Mother?" Eclipsed Moon asked with a sigh. "Ouch, do you realize it is your fault I am injured? Or what it will take for me to recover?"

While the nearly constant hunger was gone, even healing a minor bruise took weeks at times. For injuries like this however even being well fed wasn't quite enough. No one person could safely sate her and heal such a gaping wound. It was a huge temptation to use the one who caused such pain to heal. Yet she didn't try it. It still felt wrong to use her own mother in that way. Fortunately there were others who had drawn the succubus's ire available.

By the time Ranma returned home she felt extremely full. It had taken more to heal then expected. So much more that a nagging worry plagued Ranma's conscience. What if she'd fed too deeply? The last time she'd done that, Ranma had nearly killed a man. It had been when still new to her new nature. When Ranma's male form had still been human. Since it had happened Ranma had been careful about her feeding. But never before had it taken that much to recover from an injury.

"I'm home!" She called out upon entering the residence.

_Tokyo-Nerima District_

"Oof!"

A teenage girl with brown hair in a pageboy cut grunted as her back impacted the wall. She was wearing a button up yellow tee shirt tied at the belly and short tan denim shorts. The reason the girl was currently upside down and embedded in a wooden wall was not immediately clear to her. Sure there was a matter of the unverifiable pledge between two families. But it didn't explain why Nabiki Tendo was being thrown around the family dojo like a rag doll.

Nor did it explain why this boy, Ranma according to his father, insisted on being called Usagi. Why he thought Nabiki knew martial arts was also a mystery. One that was becoming rather painful. For two hours this boy had been tossing her around. And when her younger sister had tried to interfere Nabiki had witnessed what was quite possibly the most humiliating way to be defeated. Even unconscious her sister was still blushing.

"Disappointing," Usagi snorted from where she stood. "You stopped practicing years ago, that ends today."

Nabiki slowly pealed out of the indentation, only to fall onto the floor with another grunt. Most of her body hurt, although nothing was actually bruised or broken. The only real injury was to her self control. Nabiki Tendo prided herself on being able to remain cool and detached. Yet this person was able to consistently bypass her control. _Why's he doing this to me? Akane's the heir to the dojo. _When the boy next spoke it was almost like he could read her thoughts.

"The berserker might be the dojo's heir, but you don't practice the Tendo style. Who taught you the Nightbane school? They didn't do a very good job."

"But I don't," Nabiki started to protest.

But she vaguely remembered finding an ancient scroll when five. It hadn't made any sense when the young Nabiki had tried reading it. But the scroll did have funny pictures. Most were confusing, but for a while she'd tried imitating the pictures on her own. No one else had known about it, and the hobby had been abandoned when her mother died. Even the poor attempts to copy the scroll's pictures had instilled a sense of confidence. Confidence that Nabiki still relied on.

_Tokyo-Cherry Hill Shrine_

Two bodies shifted on the bed. While most of her friends were curled up on the floor in various locations of the shrine, Ami found herself on Rei's bed. The sheets were damp, and Ami realized her body felt sticky. It also ached in ways she'd not felt since the last time the senshi had trained under their sensei Mistress Nightbane. While disturbing, something else felt off. A twitch merely called further attention to the offness.

The last thing she clearly remembered was fighting a plant like monster, and then cats. Hundreds of biting and clawing cats. Just the mere thought of them sent shivers through Ami's spine. That Luna and Artemis were related to those little hellspawn made her instantly distrust them. When she opened her eyes the senshi of ice found a leathery wing in her face. There was a time when such an event as waking up to leathery wings would have immediately set her on edge.

Training under Ranma Nightbane had done much to dispell that prejudice. Living in the city of Paragon for twenty years had furthered her education. There the magical girl had encountered many demons and demonically appearing people who were firmly on the side of love and justice. Sure there had been evil demons too. But Ami had learned that not all things that look evil actually are. It was a hard won lesson, and one that had cost her a year in prison for attacking one of the city's heroes just because he happened to be a demon.

Even after twenty years defending that city and world some of the others still had trouble with attacking demons on sight. In fact, the only reason Rei Hino didn't attack 'Usagi' in this loop was because their mistress and sensei had conditioned the girls to accept their place under the Nightbane clan head. The exact nature of that position was a good question though. The brand upon Ami's breast marked her as property. Yet Mistress Nightbane treated them more like students and friends, usually. When hungry or injured Ami knew they were more akin to a thick juicy steak to the succubus.

Her hand traced along the wing searching for the source. When the question apendage found a shapely female form the immediate assumption was that it was Ranma Nightbane. This was quickly dispelled by spying raven hair instead of red. As the last dregs of sleepiness rapidly evaporated Ami sat up. The blue haired woman rolled off the bed and came up in a defensive crouch. The action however called attention to something else.

Rolling had actually hurt. Something was on Ami's back. Something which had been pressed painfully. There was also an unusual sensation of movement coming from her rear. _Deal with that later,_Ami decided. Her transformation pen appeared in Ami's hand, but she held off using it. Discovering who, or what had been sleeping with her was a higher priority. It was a question answered moments later when the unknown figure sat up.

"C-CATS!" The woman screamed in terror.

Mention of the evil beasts caused Ami to freeze for a moment. Then realization of who had screamed sank in. Followed closely by the realization that Rei Hino now had wings just like Ranma Nightbane's. Yet another thunderous revelation struck the blue haired genius next. _Kami, did I sleep with Rei? Why can't I remem... What is that?_ A blood red snake like object flitted into view from behind Ami. It's tip was pointed like an arrow head, and it was thin.

The object seemed to move on it's own. When the genius grabbed it, she yelped in sudden pain. At which point she felt something impact the wall. Yet it wasn't her back that hit. There was also a slight breeze. In a near panic Ami brought out the mercury computer and scanned her long time friend. The information revealed was not very encouraging. _Succubus-servant, see threat classification file 381-B?_ As she read the referenced file Ami spoke.

"Rei, calm down. Something ah, happened to us. I'm trying to figure out what it was."

"Calm? I'll show you calm!" The shrine maiden snapped.

Rei reached for one of her spirit wards on the dresser, only to recoil at the touch. The spiritually charged paper had actually singed her fingers. Even as the shrine maiden shook her hand in shock her long time friend was reading about succubi. And what the file said was disturbing on several levels...

_**Succubi, also known as the scourge of temptation. There are actually two known types of this demon. Natural succubi are capable of blending in with humanity. The only feature to reveal a succubus's nature is her bat-like wings. That they can be hidden makes tracking one down difficult at best. While most known as temptresses, a sucubus is not inherently evil. **_

_**The danger of them is two fold. When their hunger grows too strong they feed until nothing is left of their victims. For men, this invariably means death. With women however the result is different. Upon being drained completely, women undergo a metamorphosis into servant class succubi. These can be told apart from natural succubi by their red skin, horns, and tail. Unlike the natural variety, servant class can not hide their distinguishing features.**_

_**While little is known about their society, servant class are called such because they are thought to be little more then slaves to their creator. Researchers have yet to determine the exact nature of this servitude. While there is speculation it's nature is that of mental domination, others put forth the hypothesis that it is more of a mother and daughter relationship. Conflicting evidence supports both claims equally.**_

_**The reason for so many conflicting theories and little fact stems from the nature of researching these demons. To date no researcher who has encountered one up close has returned. Whither they have died, or something else happened is unknown. It is this researcher's belief that they are still alive. Yet if they are, those who have come before may well be lost to us. It is my recommendation that all report of succubi activity be handled by the royal guards. Anyone else would be in extreme danger.**_

_Gates of Eternity_

Eric Von Mason groaned. There was nothing he could do about the current situation. Nothing that wouldn't make things worse that is. But maybe there was a way to minimize the damage. Those measures required approval however. He still couldn't figure out who was causing these changes in the timeline. There wasn't suppose to be a four way war in the Juuban district of Tokyo. Nor was there suppose to be an as yet unwritten training scroll in the Tendo dojo for the 'Nightbane' school of martial arts.

That the scroll had been inserted without his noticing at a point several years before the recursions begin was as worrying as the fact it wouldn't be penned for thirty years of linear passage. Which meant it would be unwritten until after the time continuum was mended. When the telephone rang Eric blinked in confusion. _I didn't know this place had a phone._ Sure enough there was a telephone that looked like it came from the nineteen thirties sitting on a wooden pedestal.

Tentatively Eric picked up the receiver. "Hello?"

"_Sorry Guardian, but I'm afraid your request got denied."_

"Who is this?"

"_Call me Perth, we haven't actually met yet. Father would have informed you directly, but I'm afraid he's in a meeting right now."_

"This meeting, it wouldn't have anything to do with two magical girls becoming servant-class demons would it? Or is this about the 'tainted light' and her activities at a local high school?"

This was going to be a long cycle, Eric knew it.


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER: **I don't own Ranma ½ or any other property which might show up. What I do own is the idea for this story it's self. I make no money writing this, nor do I desire fame. It's purely for my own entertainment. If others enjoy this story too, that's all I could ask for.

**Warning: **This story is an Alternate Timeline. There will be out of character interactions. If everyone stayed in character, events would never have deviated from cannon. While I hope for humor, the story may take several serious and/or dark turns at times. Then again my sense of humor may not be yours

Wings of Returning

Sailor Eclipsed Moon smirked as she looked upon the once imposing Queen Beryl. It does prove difficult after all to intimidate others when one is tied in a pretzel. Oh sure, she could have used that weird crystal to completely destroy the evil woman. Except it refused to work properly for some reason. Every time Eclipsed Moon tried she got an error message of 'error 401 Lunar Royalty not found'. It was rather annoying.

Actually defeating the evil queen had been no problem. Convincing the other senshi not to waste their lives was the biggest trouble. Well, that and actually hitting things in that blasted fog Mercury kept creating. One would think a tactic that hinders one's self would be put to pasture, but nooo. Mercury kept having to use her freezing cold mists. Even Mars had stopped using attacks that hurt or hindered herself.

Of course it might have been due to being unable to actually touch the spirit wards. Either way they had finally defeated Queen Beryl. As Eclipsed Moon turned to walk away she felt power building up behind her. Turning slowly, she saw the sealed demon being released. _Oh shit,_ Eclipsed Moon thought just before a beam of raw negaversal energy struck her. If she'd been able to use the crystal they might have stood a chance. As it was the blast tore through the soldier of lust and justice with ease.

Her vision faded quickly. Then when awareness returned the sensation of blankets and a soft bed welcomed Ranma Nightbane. She could feel a night slip on her body. Rolling over, the demoness felt her arm drape across another female. Her eyes opened and took in the entirely too familiar and too pink bedroom. As well as the bedroom's proper resident. A glance at the nearby framed photo indicated that Ranma had lived here since about five or six years of age.

At least, she must have since the picture showed child versions of her and Usagi at a birthday party. Wings and all. The exact nature of her residency was still a mystery. Of equal confusion was why she was here instead of back with her pop. Why Ranma was female she didn't question. She'd locked her curse in the last loop to avoid problems. It was probably still locked too. Although that was by no means certain. Usually Ranma preferred to keep the curse unlocked.

Doing so made things not so much easier, but amusing, when dealing with people in Nerima. What exactly the deal with that Ryoga person was Ranma still didn't know. To both her chi and mystic sight Usagi had changed a lot since they had last met. The darkness of her soul had strengthened. No longer was it eclipsed by her innate purity. In truth to her sight Usagi seemed more shadow then light. But not exactly evil either. It was like she balanced the two natures so perfectly they blended together.

"Who screwed up this time?" The blond girl grumbled as she awoke.

"It is a most amusing event," Ranma commented offhandedly. "While I have been accepted by the lunarian deity as a champion and granted what that feline calls a 'mana tap', I am unable to actually use the silver imperium crystal. It just tells me 'error 401 lunar royalty not found' every time I try. And without this tool I was unable to stop an attack from the master of that Beryl woman you mention on occasion."

Her red tresses were quickly tied in a long pony tail. After checking demonic magic levels, conjuring some cloths was right out. This time the disgustingly pink room had two dressers though. One was situated to the right of the one normally there. In it were plenty of backless dresses. Most were in dark reds and blacks. Not only that, but they were styles that Ranma was happy to wear. Finding proper undergarments was a pleasant surprise too. As was discovering two drawers with male clothing that was acceptable.

"You, a senshi?" The blond said incredulously. "Next you'll claim you were me in the last loop."

"Actually," Ranma started, "yes people did think that I was you. Did you not see any of the magazines or newspaper articles about 'Sailor Eclipsed Moon'?"

Usagi snorted. "And when would I do that? Between the nutjobs out for my head, the other lunatics trying to marry me, and having to save that gorilla girl I barely had time to eat and sleep." She then muttered something under her breath.

This caused the demon woman to blink a few times. _If I had lived her life, could she have been living mine? And what does it mean that evidence exists to support events leading me to live here? Or leading me to be her in the last loop? _Taking note of a second dresser and second school uniform set out, the demonic woman decided to get dressed. There would be time enough to figure things out later. But first there were more important things to discuss.

"I feel I must warn you of some startling developments, my student. There have been... complications. And two of them are no longer human. Which means they are equally in danger from our senshi magic as the lower demons we fight."

"How?" Usagi squeaked in surprise.

Wings of Abandonment 

An overweight panda stood on one bamboo pole. It stood on only one leg, and somehow managed to maintain it's balance. It was wearing an ill fitting training gi, and had a pair of glasses hanging from one round ear. The panda had been a human just a few seconds ago. A human named Genma Saotome. Just moments ago his son had kicked the man into a pool of water they were sparring over. Now he wanted to return the favor.

There was only one problem to the plan. The boy was nowhere in sight. The few seconds between falling in the pool and jumping out couldn't account for it. The boy would still be visible running away. As not entirely intelligent eyes scanned the area he noticed a piece of parchment floating where his son had just been. This made the panda a little curious. After all, parchment doesn't normally float in the air unassisted. As he began to read the panda grunted.

_Sorry 'pops', but I must decline continuing this most annoying farce. I have gone to visit my wife. Afterwords I shall meet you in a nearby village. The guide you so enjoy ignoring can guide you to them. If I do not see you there within one week, I shall be at Mother's home awaiting your return. And a word of advice that is freely given; I will not stand for you trying to force me into your retirement plan on the grounds of 'honor' so do not bother trying to press the issue. Since you have no honor, I shall not try to salvage it for you._

_Nightbane 'saotome' Ranma_

"This wont end well," the panda tried to say. It was only at this moment Genma realized he was no longer human.

Wings of Testing

Her name was Rei Hino, and she was not amused. The reason she wasn't amused was rather simple. She'd woken up traveling through the air, but not under her own power. Ever since she'd become a succubus Rei had grown to enjoy flying. Being thrown out a window however was an entirely new and disliked experience. After impacting a koi pond head first the demoness glared at the one who threw her. Or at least tried to.

Instead of seeing her attacker, Rei saw a long familiar redhead flying headlong towards her. That the girl in question was snoring softly indicated rather strongly that she was not doing so intentionally. Not that it mattered when the demonic projectile impacted her in the chest. As they both fell into the water Rei found herself fondling the other woman's chest. _Damn feeding instincts,_ she thought. _Not even really hungry but I can't help myself._

"Ooo, you do not have stop on my account."

When an overweight and balding man emerged from the window he blanched. Genma didn't know where the winged and horned woman had come from. She'd just appeared the day he was cursed. Nor did he understand why his son was sometimes his daughter. It had always been like that. In fact, if he didn't know better Genma would swear the boy had fallen into a spring at the pools of sorrow too. Yet he knew the boy had managed to avoid getting wet on that day.

_**XxXxX**_

"Of course you must realize that this establishment shall reflect poorly upon any scholastic endeavors in the future."

The speaker was a girl with crimson tresses. She leaned casually against a tree near the middle Tendo sister. Two days ago Nabiki's world was nice and predictable. Insane rich boys would lead daily assaults on her younger sister, and the betting pools would make her plenty of money to suppliment the family's finances. Then a chaotic element was introduced. An element by the name of Ranma Saotome, although the aquatransgender did insist that her clan name was Nightbane rather then Saotome.

Finally Nabiki asked the question that currently was bugging her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean exactly what my words do imply," Ranma stated in her overly formal manner. "High schools do not require attendance. Thus one need take an exam to achieve entrance. That this establishment has neither an entrance examination nor placement test indicates to me education is of low importance in this place."

That was another thing about the gender bending martial artist that confused Nabiki. How and where did the boy slash girl learn to talk like that if Genma Saotome was the only role model available. By all rights she should have an easy to manipulate jock on her hands. But instead it was this enigma. An enigma that raised a very good point. One which Nabiki hadn't considered before.

It was true that her school didn't have an entrance exam. And from what she knew of Ranma's schooling, there was no way the youth could possibly be in the tenth grade. Hell, 'his' graduating elementary school was doubtful. And yet 'he' had been admitted into a high school with no tests required, nor any fees charged. It didn't speak well for the quality of the school. If the one eyed man is king in the land of the blind, what happened when the barely educated emerged into a world requiring an education?

The teachers barely had control over their classrooms. And from what rumors said, the principle would likely ruin any chance of actually learning anything if he returned. As it was, Nabiki was mostly self taught. Both her limited martial arts skills and scholastic skills were worked on in her own time. Once again Nabiki felt glad she'd found that scroll when she was young. The knowledge contained was esoteric in the extreme and hard to learn. Yet it had helped keep the teen safe several times already.

Oddly such thoughts called to mind the other enigmatic guest at her home. A girl with a demonic tail, wings, and small horns on her forehead by the name of Rei Hino. And this was the reason why the previous night had offered little actual rest. Being told she is a disgrace to the Nightbane school of 'anything goes' and in need of retraining had been unexpected. It had been after that that Ranma had declared the winged girl's 'mastery' test to be the retraining of Nabiki.

_I'm the ice queen, I don't blush. I don't get embarrassed._ Telling herself this didn't make the situation any less discombobulating though. Just the memory of the previous night's training was enough to make her face go red. No, thinking about it wasn't a good idea. Instead the greedy teen tried to focus on ways to make quick yen. Surely the guests could be used for those ends without their knowledge. After all, how could they possibly know what would be coming?

Then the red haired girl spoke again. "If you try to take any pictures of either of us, I promise that you shall experience a hell unheard of in centuries. I would appreciate being provided with respite from the mental instability of the Kuno family for the next twenty or so years. Said respite however is not possible with you providing obsession fuel."

"Huh?" Nabiki's response was uncharacteristic of her. That could be excused however due to extenuating circumstances. Being still exhausted and mentally stunned tends to make it hard to be coherent.

"I am acquainted with the means by which you normally procure finances for your family. Subjectively I have been both a victim and willing participant at times in these endeavors of your manufacture for over a thousand years. In that period the amusement has faded to a great extent. For this part of the temporal mobius I desire peace and relaxation," Ranma casually told her companion.

Nabiki scowled due to her growing confusion. _What's he talking about?How could he know of my plans already? I haven't even finished making them._

_**XxXxX**_

"You must decide!" A tall man with dark hair proclaimed.

The person he was talking to was about sixteen years old, physically at least. He was muscular, but not overly muscled. The teen had his hair tied back in a pigtail once more. He eyed the patriarch of the house with a little disdain. It was hard not to hate this man. For entirely too long Ranma Nightbane had been subjected to the idiocy of his 'father' and Soun Tendo. But how to break the news to him, that was the real question. A question that was hard to answer.

"Mister Tendo, I fail to understand why for you are so insistent upon this matter. The panda that claims to be my father is a known thief and con artist. He has sold my hand in marriage twenty six times to mortals for as little as a bowl of rice, two pickles, and a fish. If I was not already married he would also have created binding engagements to three demons, two goddesses, and a dragon as well. All in an attempt to feed his stomach."

Ranma started typing on a keyboard that had appeared out of no where. "The dragon was offered me as a wife in exchange for one barely cooked leg of lamb. Hmm, he may still pose a problem in the future. Bast was offered my hand in marriage in an attempt to placate her. Aphrodite was offered the same in exchange for three gold coins. Must I go on, or is this enough to convince you of how dishonorable Saotome is? And need I remind you yet again that I am not a Saotome. My clan is that of Nightbane."

It had actually been a shock to discover the switch in clans had been done a good ten years previous in this recursion. Almost as great as learning the world believed Ranma to be a gender changing succubus since birth. Just one more detail that retroactively fit in with the current situation. Something was happening. Whatever it was, it gave Ranma hope that these endless loops were nearing an end. From the dojo he could hear Rei putting the middle sister through her paces again.

"I will be staying for the time being. But that is only due to my student undergoing her mastery quest. Once the retraining of your middle daughter has been completed I shall judge her skills."

Inside the dojo Nabiki was not having much fun. Her unwanted sensei had decided the lesson was over, for the moment. As she donned the robe provided the middle Tendo couldn't help wonder why she was forbidden from wearing anything else while at home. The situation was embarrassing to say the least. _At least she left the doors closed this time,_ Nabiki thought to herself. Between how sore she felt and the embarrassment, not to mention need to get clean, she didn't have the energy to try scheming.

It was alarming just how... creative Rei Hino could get with that tail of hers. 

_Wings of Mending_

_Minute by minute I grow stronger. Already I can feel the chains which bind weakening. Soon, very soon I shall be free once more. I who once offered balance was betrayed. They damned me, and in doing so damned themselves. Did they not see? Without darkness there can be no light. The brighter the illumination, the deeper the shadow that must be cast. This is basic, it's natural. Yet they saw not. They insisted on purifying the light, casting out all darkness._

_Those fools, don't they realize that darkness is not the same as evil? A necromancer can be a positive force as easily as a negative one. The purifying fire can just as easily maim and kill. Disease too serves it's purpose. Where there's life, there must be death. This duality was the basis for my reign. Accept the good and the bad equally and unflinchingly while striving to remain just. For eight generations my line has turned it's back on maintaining the balance._

_Is it any wonder then that they were destroyed in the end? And yet one lives again. Not only does a descendent live, but she has embraced the duality of light. She has given herself unto me, although she knows it not. It's through her that my freedom is at last at hand. I accept my fate, I no longer am a mortal. Haven't been one for many eons. I lost my humanity when I embraced the twilight and all it means. Because of my daughter I am considered a demon. It matters not, I am who I am._

_The gates of Eternity_

Eric Von Mason slumped into the couch in exhaustion. He'd decided to wear a flannel button up shirt and jeans on this day. His armor and costume were currently stored away, as was the rest of his belongings. Susan wanted him home for supper tonight but it was questionable if he'd make it. Tracking down who was manipulating time was proving difficult.

Considering time manipulation was what had initially created the problems requiring a recursive loop to fix, this alarmed him greatly. For a dozen loops he'd been trying to track the culpret down. A last ditch plan had been rejected by Kami-Sama, otherwise known as this dimension's Odin. Which had surprised Eric to no end. He'd met a few 'gods', and hadn't been impressed. Sure they had been powerful, but they weren't true deities. It wasn't until he'd been called upon to be the guardian of the gates for a while he met real deities.

It was also when he met the first demons not out to conquer all of creation. But then, the demons of this dimension looked nothing like the ones he'd seen before. Even Eric's wife was at a loss to explain it. If he understood correctly, in this dimension there were unique versions of both heaven and hell. Each plane existed alongside the regular one, yet out of synch with them. There were still plenty of 'traditional' demons and monsters for Susan to hunt, just what he had started to call 'class' demons too.

Things were coming to a head too. Soon the timeline would be fully repaired according to the gate. And when that happened he didn't know what the end result of the mystery agency's actions would be. An intruder in his domain brought the fairly ugly man to high alert. His tired state of body belied it though. The intruder was a blond, roughly six feet in height. She wore a gown that was half black, half white. Looking at the dress though, it was hard to tell where one color ended and the other began.

The division point kept moving as if her gown was alive. As he watched the black chased the white part across her body to the left, only to be chased in the same direction by white in return. Eric stood slowly. Once on his feet he extended serrated edged bionic claws from the backs of his hands. The originals had been plain strait blades. They had been upgraded to these vibro-claws so very long ago. The better to deal with things small arms fire and martial arts couldn't handle in overly magic saturated places.

"Lady, I don't know who you are. But I suggest you go back where you came from. I'm not in the mood to deal with any bullshit."

The woman looked at him and laughed. "Relax guardian, I'm not here to fight. Just talk. You may call me Serenity, the lady of twilight."

"Oh, is that all? Well I don't have any tea or crumpets," Eric snorted with a tone dripping with sarcasm.

The intruder merely shrugged. "That's all right. I'm not actually with you anyway. The chains haven't quite weakened enough for that. I suppose I should start off by saying that yes, I am the one who's been messing with time."

"Lady, you have to stop." He started, claws still bared. "One person caused enough damage to continuity with her using the timeline for amusement. What you're doing could destroy everything."

Serenity laughed once more. "You're funny. Do you think I would try helping my descendent and her allies without first making sure I do no lasting harm? And yes, you already met her. I think she goes by 'sailor moon' or some nonsense. I must say, I am rather proud of the girl. With no idea what she's doing, she's been the best priestess I've ever had."

Eric was scowling by this point. "Let me see if I understand this. You're claiming that blond mystic cannon is your descendent, as well as your priestess? And that your messing with time just to 'help' her? Why? What's in it for you?"

"Nothing actually," She told Mason. "Usagi has done everything I could have ever asked. Within a hundred years I'll finally be freed from my wrongful imprisonment. My line has been put back on the true path. And all this she's done entirely on her own. What more could I possibly want to gain?"

She rubbed her hands together before vanishing. Eric could swear he heard her say "And once I'm free, I think I'll call in some of those favors the demons owe me."

**Author Notes: **

Thank you for joining me for this little exercise. This is probably the end of Wings of Recursion. I've run out of ideas for one off story blurbs. And with the final one I give a conclusion to things, as well as explain a plot thread that has been throughout the Wings of Recursion tales. A few may eventually be taken aside and turned into a full blown multi-chapter story. Or maybe not, I'm undecided as yet. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it.

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